Texas voters overwhelmingly approved ballot measures supporting parental rights, requiring citizenship to vote in statewide elections and imposing stricter penalties for defendants accused of certain criminal offenses in victories for conservatives on what was a mostly disappointing election night for them nationwide.
While progressive victories in gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, along with the New York City mayoral contest and a redistricting referendum in California received much of the spotlight following Tuesday’s elections, Texas voters approved several ballot measures reflecting the priorities of conservatives nationwide.
The legislatively referred constitutional amendments on the ballot received broad support from both parties in the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature, which passed resolutions sending them to the voters for approval.
With 87% of the vote counted, unofficial results show that 69.8% of Texas voters backed Proposition 15.
According to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, Proposition 15 will add language to the Texas Constitution affirming that “a parent has the responsibility to nurture and protect the parent’s child and the corresponding fundamental right to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”
Proposition 15 will add Section 37 to Article 1 of the Texas Constitution, which declares “The state or a political subdivision of this state shall not interfere with the rights of a parent” unless it is “essential to further a compelling governmental interest” and is “narrowly tailored to accomplish that compelling governmental interest.”
The Republican-controlled Texas Senate voted unanimously to send the proposition before voters for approval, while the Republican-controlled Texas House voted 112-22 to put the proposition on the ballot. Most House Democrats supported giving voters the option to weigh in on parental rights, although a significant minority opposed.
Unofficial results also show that Proposition 3 pertaining to bail passed with 61% of the vote.
Proposition 3, approved by the Texas Legislature as Senate Joint Resolution 5, will add language to the Texas Constitution to require the denial of bail pending trial for defendants accused of committing offenses including murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated sexual assault, indecency with a child, human trafficking and aggravated assault that either caused serious bodily injury or involved the use of a firearm, club, knife or explosive weapon.
The legislatively referred constitutional amendment to deny bail to defendants accused of committing serious offenses received unanimous support in the Texas Senate and was approved by the Texas House in a 133-8 vote, with most Democrats supporting the measure.
According to unofficial results regarding Proposition 16, which sought to ban non-citizens from voting, 71.8% of Texas voters supported the amendment.
Proposition 16 will amend the Texas Constitution to clarify that “only United States citizens are allowed to vote in Texas elections.” It will add non-citizens to a previously established list of Texas residents who are ineligible to vote in state elections outlined in Article VI of the Texas Constitution.
Giving voters the option to impose a citizenship requirement for voting in Texas elections received strong bipartisan support in the Texas Senate, which voted 28-3 to refer the proposed constitutional amendment to voters. The Texas House voted 102-14 to do the same, with a nearly identical number of Democrats supporting and opposing the effort.
According to Ballotpedia, voters in 13 other states have approved ballot measures adding language to state constitutions explicitly prohibiting non-citizens from voting: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
