AUSTIN (1080 KRLD)- Governor Greg Abbott is calling for enhanced penalties for voting illegally.
In a statement, the governor wrote "The State of Texas has made tremendous progress in upholding the integrity of our elections," Abbott wrote in a news release.
"By increasing penalties for illegal voting, we will send an even clearer message that voter fraud will not be tolerated in Texas."
Rice University political scientist Mark Jones says former president Trump wanted Texas to add legislation to the special session that would require a statewide audit of the 2020 election.
"This distracts a little bit with president Trump's displeasure with the lack of a great scope of the audit, by saying I am going to penalize illegal voting which happens so rarely in Texas that this is more symbolic than anything else."
He calls the move "purely symbolic."
Texas is carrying out of audit of Harris, Tarrant, Dallas and Collin Counties from the 2020 election. Trump won only Collin of the four and took Texas by six percentage points.
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