Updated at 12:10 p.m. Aug. 10 with more details.

AUSTIN — The Texas House approved a bill Thursday that would increase penalties for mail-in election crimes.

Senate Bill 5 by Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, was approved by a vote of 92-39 despite vociferous opposition from House Democrats who spent hours on Wednesday trying to amend and kill the bill. The bill now heads back to the Senate where lawmakers can accept the changes the House made or appoint committees to hash out the differences before passing it along to Gov. Greg Abbott to sign into law.

Abbott, who has promised to fight voter fraud, made it one of his priorities for the special legislative session. The issue received little attention during the regular session, despite being the primary way experts believe voter fraud occurs. But it gained traction after allegations of mail-in ballot fraud in West Dallas and Grand Prairie this spring.

Under the law, penalties for election crimes would be increased to the next-highest offense level. Misdemeanors will become felonies, and low-level felonies would get an upgrade.

The fines associated with the crimes also would increase. Fraudulent use of a ballot, for instance, would rise from a state jail felony to a third-degree felony, punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The law is aimed at cracking down on those who target people over the age of 65 for ballot fraud. It also places tougher penalties on repeat offenders or people who commit multiple offenses during the same election.

"I believe this legislation goes after those committing crimes in illegal ballot fraud," said Rep. Craig Goldman, a Fort Worth Republican who sponsored the bill in the House.

Increasing penalties from a "slap on the wrist," Goldman said, would deter anyone considering committing election crimes.

But Democrats said the bill was misguided because it focused only on enhancing penalties. Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, said approving the bill was an acceptance of an application system for mail-in ballots "that is too easy to cheat."

"I don't believe anyone in this body wants to make it easy for cheaters," Romero said.

A Democratic amendment to automatically send all voters over the age of 65 their ballots was voted down. In the West Dallas case, the culprits ordered mail-in ballots for voters without their knowledge and used them to vote. Goldman said the amendment would create an "unfunded mandate."

During debate Wednesday, he expressed frustration that many Democrats waited until Wednesday to bring up their concerns with the bill, saying his door has been open the entire special session.

"I'm open to any and all discussion," Goldman said after the vote. "No one brought anything to me until today."

Dallas Democrat Eric Johnson, a vocal advocate for changing mail-in ballots, tried to kill the bill during the floor debate. He said a 30-day special session isn't enough time to properly consider the issue, forcing the Legislature to pass an "11th-hour" solution.

He also said the bill lacked input from Democrats and representatives from the areas that were most affected by mail-in ballot fraud. Though the cases that spurred the legislation happened in his and Sen. Royce West's Dallas districts, neither was contacted for input, he said. And none of the victims of the case were brought in to testify to legislative committees.

"I take great issue with the process that got us here today," Johnson said. "This smacks of partisanship."

Rep. Celia Israel, the vice chairwoman of the elections committee, also decried the lack of Democratic input.

"My friend Rep. Goldman in my view is taking an assignment from the governor and making this go down as cleanly and quickly as possible for the sake of political points," the Austin Democrat said.

Repeal of bipartisan voting bill

Democrats weren't the only ones the legislation left out in the cold. Goldman amended his bill to repeal a bipartisan effort to curb voter fraud at nursing homes that passed during the regular session, pushed by Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress.

A provision in House Bill 68, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed, would create a process for collecting absentee ballots at nursing homes and similar facilities, essentially turning them into polling places and discouraging others from manipulating their votes.

On Wednesday, Goldman struck that language from state election law, saying it would create an unfunded mandate and be extremely costly for county election officials. Its inclusion in a bill by Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, was an "oversight that people missed," Goldman said.

In an impassioned defense of his legislation, Oliverson said he was frustrated that people were shooting down a bipartisan effort because they did not trust the other party.

"I just think that's sad," he said.

Any suggestion that the effort was "corrupt or hijacked" was "patently false," he said.

Oliverson voted against the amendment and promised to reintroduce the effort in the next legislative session in 2019.

"We will come back in two years," Oliverson said. "We will try again and I will keep fighting."