As Texas GOP lawmakers push election fraud claims, the party's voters say elections work fine

Even as Texas Republicans continue to use election security to justify pushing bills that would make it harder to cast ballots, a new survey shows the majority of voters in their own party have no problem with current election laws.

A poll by the nonpartisan Secure Elections Project found that most Texas Republicans and conservatives say they trust the state's election system. According to the survey data, 83% of Texas GOP voters are satisfied with the current system, while 86% trust election officials to be fair and accurate.

Only 13% of Lone Star State Republicans said they have “not much confidence,” while just 1% say they have “no confidence at all.”

While GOP lawmakers in Texas and other states seized former President Donald Trump's big lie that the 2020 election was stolen, the poll shows the party's voters in the state don't see the system as corrupt and broken, said Trey Grayson, director of the Secure Elections Project.

"The hope is that some lawmakers will look at these numbers and go, 'Hey, these people who are saying the system is broken are really extreme and they're really a small percentage of voters,'" said Grayson, who served two-terms as Kentucky's Republican Secretary of State.

The poll comes days after Texas resigned from a national, bipartisan effort to prevent voter fraud, becoming the largest GOP-led state to break with it. Far-right groups targeted that initiative, known as the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that it was a liberal attempt to control election outcomes.

Texas became a lightning rod for controversy during the 2021 legislative session for passing a sweeping Republican-backed bill that tightened the state's already-strict election rules while allowing unprecedented access to partisan poll watchers. Civil rights groups blasted the proposal as a bid to keep poor people, people of colors and other likely Democratic voters away from voting places.

During this year's regular session, lawmakers also introduced a variety of measures that would further limit poll access, even though they met with less success than two years prior. Among those voting-rights groups considered most toxic was a failed bill by Wimberly Republican Carrie Isaac that would have banned polling places on college campuses.

Grayson of the Secure Elections Project acknowledged that many Republicans in the Texas Legislature are unlikely to be swayed by the new poll and will continue to pander to primary voters. However, he said he hopes some moderates and those serving in swing districts pay heed to the numbers.

Indeed, 77% of Texas Republicans support automated voter registration, which SEP and other voting-rights groups argue would increase ballot access in the state while proving secure elections.

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