Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday called for Texas lawmakers to increase the penalty for illegal voting — less than a month after he signed a bill that would lower the maximum punishment.

The crime of illegal voting was scheduled to go from a second degree felony to a Class A misdemeanor in December, after the passage of Senate Bill 1, a sweeping bill that restricted the state’s voting process and narrowed local control of elections.

Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to a year in jail, but can be resolved with a fine. A second degree felony in Texas is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

But in a letter to the Texas Senate on Thursday, Abbott added legislation that would reverse that change to the list of items lawmakers can consider during the current special session of the Legislature.

“The State of Texas has made tremendous progress in upholding the integrity of our elections,” Abbott said in a press release. “By increasing penalties for illegal voting, we will send an even clearer message that voter fraud will not be tolerated in Texas.”

The message comes days after the Secretary of State’s office announced an audit of the general election of 2020 in four Texas counties — Harris, Collin, Dallas and Tarrant — despite there being no widespread evidence of voter fraud.

Local officials said they were in the dark about the process, which Abbott later claimed had already begun as the audit’s guidelines covered some of the standard post-election procedures local officials are already required to undertake.

This article was written by NEELAM BOHRA of The Texas Tribune.  The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.  This article originally appeared at:https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/30/texas-greg-abbott-voting/