Issue Position: Fair Elections

Issue Position

Access to the Polls

Texas has a terrible history of discriminatory voting practices, from whites-only primaries to poll taxes to literacy tests. These tendencies were resurrected during the 2011 legislative session with the passage of a strict voter ID law. Voter fraud is an imagined problem, and I will fight for the repeal of the voter ID law as well as for increasing access to the ballot box for all Texans. This includes online voter registration, same day voter registration, and access to mail-in ballots for all Texans.

Fair Legislative Districts

Every ten years after the census is completed the state legislature redraws the boundaries for each state house, state senate, and congressional district in the state. The process is incredibly political, fundamentally unfair, and leads to districts that make no sense. For example, 52% of Texans showed up in 2016 to vote for the Republican ticket, and yet 69% of our United State Representatives are Republicans. Similar percentages exist for the Texas Legislature. This 17 point gap between votes and representation is mostly due to gerrymandering.

In addition, extreme gerrymandering divides communities between multiple districts, draws districts that span small sections of many different communities, and makes it hard for those communities to reach out to their elected representatives. The only way to permanently address this problem is to take the power to draw districts away from legislators and instead give it to a nonpartisan commission. Texas citizens deserve the right to vote on a constitutional amendment to create an Independent Redistricting Commission to draw our legislative and
congressional districts.

Campaign Finance Reform

Texas is one of twelve states that has no contribution limits for state elections. An individual can give unlimited amounts of money to a candidate, and we've seen outsized donations right here in House District 45. The incumbent (who is not seeking re-election) has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from just two donors, and he shepherded a bill to create a special purpose district for one of those donors. Lawmakers cannot receive that much money from individuals and remain independent. Unlimited donations give the wealthy unfair power over our laws and favor candidates with wealthy social circles. I will support campaign finance reform to establish contribution limits in Texas elections, preferably matching the federal individual limit of $2700.

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