Article VI, Section 4 of the Texas Constitution

As amended November 8, 1966:

In all elections by the people, the vote shall be by ballot, and the Legislature shall provide for the numbering of tickets and make such other regulations as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box; and the Legislature shall provide by law for the registration of all voters.

Editor Comments

As adopted in 1876, this section read: "In all elections by the people the vote shall be by ballot, and the Legislature shall provide for the numbering of tickets and make such other regulations as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box; but no law shall ever be enacted requiring a registration of the voters of this State."

In 1939, focusing on the literal text rather than the documented intent of this section, the Supreme Court approved the use of voting machines in Texas. Cf. Womack v. Foster, 8 S.W.3d 854, 867 (Ark. 2000) ("In City of Little Rock v. Henry [], we held that the use of voting machines in popular elections would not satisfy the numbering requirement of Article 3, section 3, of the Arkansas Constitution, because the machines were not capable of making a record of individual votes.")

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

• Andrade v. NAACP of Austin, 345 S.W.3d 1, 15 (Tex. 2011) (citation omitted) ("[T]he voters contend that failing to require a paper ballot undermines the framers' intent in drafting the numbering requirement—a requirement they claim was intended to secure the integrity of the election process. Assuming, as we must, that these allegations are true, they amount only to a generalized grievance shared in substantially equal measure by all or a large class of citizens. The voters' complaint that the lack of a contemporaneous paper record violates the spirit of the constitution is the kind of 'undifferentiated, generalized grievance' about the conduct of government that courts cannot adjudicate.")

Historic Decisions

• Oliphint v. Christy, 299 S.W.2d 933, 939 (Tex. 1957) ("It is also true that legal voters may not be compelled to disclose how they voted, but it does not follow that illegal voters enjoy the same privilege. In fact, it is difficult to see how any fraud whatsoever could be detected in any election by way of a voting machine if the illegal voter enjoys the same privilege as the legal voter. If the illegal voter is clothed with this same privilege, then Section 4 of Article 6 of the Texas Constitution would become a nullity as there would be no way to detect fraud in an election. The privilege of nondisclosure belongs only to the legal voter and the individual who votes illegally cannot be considered a 'voter' for any purpose.")

• Wood v. State ex rel. Lee, 126 S.W.2d 4, 9 (Tex. 1939) ("[T]he word 'ticket,' as here used, means the same as the word 'ballot.' The ballot must be numbered. If we understand this record, the election officers kept a poll list which showed the name and number of each voter. When the voter registered his vote on the machine, it (the machine) recorded the number of the ballot. To our minds, this meets the requirement of the Constitution. As we understand this machine, it is not possible from the record made by it to determine, in an election contest, how each voter voted. Be that as it may, the Constitution contains no such requirement. The Constitution simply requires that the ticket shall be numbered.")

• Solon v. State, 114 S.W. 349, 358 (Tex.Crim.App. 1908) ("[T]he Legislature is not only authorized, but it is made their duty, to 'make such other regulations, as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box.' What measures are necessary to accomplish these objects the Legislature must determine and when they have so determined and by proper legislative action have passed laws to attain this result, it is our duty, not to destroy, but rather to decree that they shall live and do their perfect work. Nor does the act in question in the legal sense interfere either with the freedom of or impair the obligations of contract, as these terms have heretofore been understood.")

• State v. Connor, 23 S.W. 1103, 1105 (Tex. 1893) ("By the act of March 16, 1848, the officers of election were required to 'write and number the name of each voter. * * * One of the managers shall in every case, at the time of receiving the ticket or ballot, write upon it the voter's number corresponding with the clerk's list. * * * No ticket not thus numbered, shall be counted or noticed in counting out the votes.' This continued to be the law in Texas until 1870 . . . . The law requiring the numbering of ballots had been restored, and the registration law had been repealed; but, to make sure that such laws should not be again enacted, the section quoted was framed and adopted as a part of the constitution.")

Library Resources

• Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (this multi-volume and up-to-date resource is available at all law libraries and many municipal libraries)

• The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (this one-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)

• The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (this two-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)

Online Resources

• Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (this resource is published and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)

• Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)

• Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)