Texas Senate bill by Sen. Bettencourt allows combining certain election precincts to manage voter distribution

Passed bill authored by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt seeks to manage election precinct boundaries by allowing the combination of smaller precincts to prevent excessive spending and maintain voting access, according to the Texas Legislature website.

In the Senate, 10 Democrats and 20 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, with no opposition.

Meanwhile, in the House, nine Democrats and 85 Republicans voted in favor, while 52 Democrats voted against it.

Paul Bettencourt introduced the bill in the Texas Senate on Wednesday, Jan. 29, during the 89th regular legislative session.

Bettencourt graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS.

Bettencourt, a Republican, was elected to the Texas State Senate in 2015 to represent the state’s 7th Senate district, replacing previous state senator Dan Patrick.

According to the Texas Legislature, the bill’s official text was summarized as follows: ‘Relating to the combination of certain election precincts’.

The following is our breakdown, based on the actual bill text, and may include interpretation to clarify its provisions.

In essence, this bill allows certain election precincts to be combined if changes due to redistricting result in precincts with fewer than 500 registered voters, aiming to prevent excessive spending on election resources. In counties with at least 250,000 people, precincts with between 500 and 750 voters may also be combined. In general or special elections, counties with populations under 1.2 million that do not use countywide polling places can merge precincts if no suitable polling location is found and the resulting location serves voters adequately. Precincts formed under these conditions may not exceed 10,000 voters and must not dilute voting strength or discourage participation under the Voting Rights Act. The bill takes effect Sept. 1, 2025.

The bill was co-authored by Sen. Angela Paxton (Republican – District 8), Sen. Kevin Sparks (Republican – District 31), and Sen. Brent Hagenbuch (Republican – District 30).

The bill received its final legislative approval on Monday, May 12, and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday, May 24.

Bills in Texas go through a multi-step legislative process, including committee review, debates, and votes in both chambers before reaching a final decision. Each session, there are typically thousands of bills introduced, but only a portion successfully navigate the process to become law.

You can read more about the bills and other measures here.