Election integrity continues to be a top issue for both Republican elected officials and the GOP grassroots. But despite the efforts of President Trump and many in the GOP, the SAVE Act remains stalled in the Senate, with hope of passage this Congress dwindling.
Now some of that attention is coming back to state-level election security efforts, with the Texas House of Representatives’ Elections Committee holding a hearing to weigh possible next steps for election security.
According to reporting on the hearing by The Texas Scorecard, everything from election timelines to transparency, ballot secrecy, and even election auditing was discussed.
State Representative Steve Toth, who is also the GOP nominee for Texas’s Second Congressional District in the 2026 midterms, sits on the Elections Committee and says forensic audits need to be developed.
According to Toth: “Right now, what Texas has is what’s known as a ‘risk limiting audit.’ You’re auditing systems, but you’re not auditing outcomes. That’s a mistake.”
Toth went on to point out that state law already requires that election material be retained for 18 months after an election, but says hardly anyone is allowed to actually see it. “Let’s say there’s a really tight election. A losing candidate isn’t allowed to say, ‘I want to see an audit performed.’ They’ll do a recount, but they’re not gonna do an audit,” he said.
He also called out the lack of security when it comes to absentee ballots, saying: “The vast majority of the fraud that’s occurring is occurring through absentee ballots.” Toth said multiple bills have been pushed over the years to crack down on absentee ballot fraud, but they always end up being killed in the House.