Governor Greg Abbott defended Texas’ voting system during a press conference at the Capitol on Monday. Abbott spoke out against President Barack Obama who criticized state leaders during his trip to Austin on Friday for not bringing voting into the digital age.
Obama sat down with Texas Tribune CEO and Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith Friday afternoon to kick off the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin to talk about the importance of incorporating more technology into government.
“How can we create safe, secure, smart systems for people to be able to vote much easier online?” Obama said.
When Obama was asked what he thought about Texas’ historically low voter turnout, he said it’s the state’s leadership that is partly to blame, pointing out a Texas policy that prohibits online voter registration.
“It’s not insecure,” Obama said. “It’s done because the folks who are currently governing the good state of Texas aren’t interested in having more people participate.”
Governor Greg Abbott was quick to dismiss the President’s criticism on Monday. Abbott said that in fact more Texans are voting now than ever before.
“And to the contrary of the President’s comment, the fact is that despite our voter registration laws,” Abbott said, “we had the highest level of turnout than ever before in the primary that occurred just a few weeks before he made that comment.”
According to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, more than 4.2 million Texans voted in the presidential primary race on March 1st—the highest number of voters the state has ever seen.
However, even with the recent record turnout, the Texas Tribune reports that only one state, Louisiana, reported a lower turnout in the primary elections thus far.
Abbott also said on Monday that his main concern moving forward is cracking down on voter fraud.
“What I find is that leaders of the other party are against efforts to crack down on voter fraud,” Abbott said. “I personally prosecuted voter fraud across the entire state of Texas, and we will continue our effort to crackdown to make sure there is no illegal voting in the state of Texas.”