Houston Chronicle/PolitiFact: Fact check – Mostly False: Can Texans register a dead relative to vote and then cast a mail ballot in their name?

Houston Chronicle/PolitiFact: Fact check - Mostly False: Can Texans register a dead relative to vote and then cast a mail ballot in their name?

If someone did attempt to register a dead relative, that application would most likely be rejected, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a group that advocates for voting access. If a dead person did make it onto the voter rolls, "the person attempting to impersonate the deceased person would still have to navigate identification requirements, signature verification, and the possibility that the voter registration would be flagged once the appropriate databases did get updated," Gutierrez said. "The odds of this person successfully casting a ballot for their dead relative are extremely low, and the odds of them using this ploy to have any meaningful impact on the outcome of an election are practically zero, whereas their odds of getting themselves into very serious legal trouble and probably spending some time in prison would be extremely high," Gutierrez said.

Our ruling

A Facebook post suggests that a person can register a dead relative to vote in Texas and then cast a mail ballot in that person’s name.

It does appear some voter registration applicants have been sent to people who have died, and a nefarious person could attempt to register a dead person to vote. But this Facebook post is missing context because it overlooks the checks and balances in place to prevent exactly this scenario. When officials receive a voter registration application, they enter the applicant’s name, age, birth date, driver’s license number or Social Security number into a database. They compare that personal information with potential matches in other databases of people who have died. When there is a match, the applicant is not registered to vote.

It is a crime to sign a voter registration form with false information, seek a mail ballot on behalf of a dead person, or return a ballot on behalf of a dead person.

We rate this statement Mostly False. …

If someone did attempt to register a dead relative, that application would most likely be rejected, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a group that advocates for voting access.

If a dead person did make it onto the voter rolls, “the person attempting to impersonate the deceased person would still have to navigate identification requirements, signature verification, and the possibility that the voter registration would be flagged once the appropriate databases did get updated,” Gutierrez said.

“The odds of this person successfully casting a ballot for their dead relative are extremely low, and the odds of them using this ploy to have any meaningful impact on the outcome of an election are practically zero, whereas their odds of getting themselves into very serious legal trouble and probably spending some time in prison would be extremely high,” Gutierrez said.