The State of Texas, like a lot of Republican dominated states, passed voting restriction legislation that they claimed would “make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

So how is it working?

In the March 1 Texas primary this year, the state threw out 23,000 mail-in ballots, roughly 13% of the mail ballots cast in the counties surveyed by the Associated Press. The rejected ballots indicate that voters were having a hard time complying with the new rules Texas installed, including providing a personal ID number, such as a driver’s license number or Social Security number as well as a signature.

Tens of thousands of votes were rejected. How many of them were from legitimate voters who got mixed up by the new rules?

The number of rejected ballots dwarfs the number of potentially fraudulent ballots cast in most elections. The AP’s study of the 2020 election in six battleground states found a few hundred potentially fraudulent ballots over six states, not enough to change the election outcome.

Depriving 23,000 people of their right to vote however, that could affect an election.

If Texas’ aim was to get the cheaters while allowing legitimate voters to have their say, it looks like they failed. If it was to keep more Democrats from voting, they may have been successful. The AP survey found that the percentage of rejected ballots was higher in the Democratic-leaning counties.

Texas needs to do better to ensure that all voters can cast ballots and have them counted.