Texas Republican Party places nonbinding advisory questions on March primary ballot

The Texas Republican Party has placed 10 nonbinding advisory questions on the March 1 primary ballot. The Texas Democratic Party did not place any questions on primary ballots.

An advisory question is a type of ballot measure that has no legally binding effect but serves to let voters express their opinions on a policy. The outcome of an advisory question will not result in a new, changed, or rejected law or constitutional amendment. For party-specific questions on primary election ballots, voters in different party primaries will see different propositions on their ballots, or, in the case of Texas in 2022, Republicans will see propositions, and Democrats will not.

In the introduction to the propositions on its website, the Republican Party stated, “Keep in mind that this is an opinion poll of Republican voters and not a policy referendum. When you vote YES or NO, you are telling us what you think should happen. You are not voting to make a law but merely saying YES you agree or NO you do not agree with the statement.”

The propositions address the following topics:

• The Texas border and immigration
• Property taxes
• Penalties for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine
• Race in education curriculum
• Establishing a right to life from fertilization to natural death
• State legislative practices
• Penalties for election fraud and maintaining state-run elections
• Prohibition of sex transition procedures for minors
• Education funding
• Freedom of individual conscience

In 2020, the Republican Party and Democratic Party placed 10 and 11 questions, respectively, on March primary ballots. The 10 Republican Party questions received a “yes” vote by at least 85.38% of voters. The question that received the highest approval rating with 98.46% was related to “[removing] illegal voters from the voter rolls and [verifying] that each new registered voter is a U.S. Citizen.” The 11 Democratic Party questions received a “yes” vote by at least 91.54% of voters. The question that received the highest approval rating with 97.63% was related to “the right to clean air, safe water, affordable and sustainable alternative energy sources, and a ​responsible climate policy.”