Bill to scrub voting rolls, require US manufacture of voting machines, advances in House

House Bill 259 would also require that any new voting machines purchased in the state be manufactured in the United States by companies based in the United States. The idea is to limit the potential for foreign interference.

The jury/citizenship language was added to the bill Wednesday in the House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform committee, which sent it straight to the House floor on what appeared to be a party-line voice vote, with Republicans voting for it and Democrats against. The timing is unusual, but not unheard of, skipping other committee reviews and making the bill eligible for a vote in the full House on Thursday.

Under the bill, clerks of court would note whenever people called for jury duty say they're not citizens and forward their names to the State Board of Elections. The state board would then use that information to clean the state's voting rolls, removing potential non-citizens who can't legally vote. If the board sees the person has voted before, they would forward that name to the local district attorney for potential criminal prosecution.

Bill supporters said the measure tightens election security. Opponents said they were worried about unintended consequences and bad information.

For the other 83 matches, the State Board of Elections documented that the people in question were legal voters using information from the state Division of Motor Vehicles and other sources.