Thread

Unknown number of Texas voter registrations went unprocessed due to DPS error

106 points · 195 comments · hn_acker

agos · 1790263045 · focus · HN ↗
the entire concept of "voter registration" (and associated shenanigans) is so alien to my European brain that I fail to see any reason why the richest country in the world does things this way other than voter suppression. What am I missing?
1. oilkillsbirds · 1790263596 · focus · HN ↗
  You think there’s no voter fraud in Europe?
  1. thinkingtoilet · 1790263806 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes. Just like there is basically zero fraud in America. This isn't a problem. It is only for the dumbest people who believe Trump that 'millions of illegal immigrants voted' yet they haven't produced a single bit of evidence to prove it, but I'm sure it's real.
    ibejoeb · 1790265775 · focus · HN ↗
    For context:
    Illegal immigrant voted: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/colombian-national-pleads-guilty-charges-related-adopting-identity-us-citizen-obtain" rel="nofollow">https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/colombian-national-plea...
    6,600 noncitizens registered, 400 noncitizens voted, undisclosed how many, if any, are unlawfully in country: <a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2026/6600-noncitizens-registered-to-vote-after-error-in-new-jersey-motor-vehicle-system-governor-says/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2026/6600-nonci...
    crote · 1790267109 · focus · HN ↗
    To be fair, as was seen with Bush v. Gore a very small number of votes can change the entire political landscape. Something probably ought to be done about that as well.
    sethammons · 1790271058 · focus · HN ↗
    from that source: a dmv program errored and registered some people to vote. So the government itself made the error. Out of 4 million voters in NJ, 400 ineligible people voted. And were caught. Oregon found 30 ineliglbe voters cast ballots. And were caught. Colorado, none were allowed to vote. In CA, 1.5k incorrectly registered voters _may_ have voted, and of those, _some_ might not have been US citizens.
    This is the strongest evidence the nation can turn up on voter fraud. It sure looks to me that the system is catching the absolutely minuscule amount of non-voters voting and that voter fraud is mostly a non-issue.
    It appears the more common voter fraud is a US citizen voting in elections outside their home residence. Like Ken Paxton, running for senate in TX, who it appears voted numerous times using his ex-wife's address, including to vote for himself.
    <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/07/ken-paxton-voting-election-law/" rel="nofollow">https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/07/ken-paxton-voting-el...
    zahlman · 1790312727 · focus · HN ↗
    It's bizarre to me that putting numbers on something with high quality citations gets downvoted like this.
    thinkingtoilet · 1790366022 · focus · HN ↗
    And how many votes were cast? Did it impact the election in any way? It's a non-issue and we should be happy about that.
    ibejoeb · 1790368157 · focus · HN ↗
    That's all in the cited sources. I didn't offer an opinion. I added contextual information related directly to your positions.
    thinkingtoilet · 1790378420 · focus · HN ↗
    You deliberately left out facts to support your bias. 4,000,000 votes case. So 0.01%. If the election was that close a recount would be done anyway. It does not effect anything at all because our system is already solid and that's a good thing. There is no crisis. There are no major issues in this area. There are major issues with Texas closing down polling places in black neighborhoods but lets all pretend it's illegal voting.
    ibejoeb · 1790379767 · focus · HN ↗
    I posted 2 sources. I did not post a comment. Take it up with the authors.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.