Update, 5:30 p.m.: to reflect committee vote.

AUSTIN — A Senate committee Sunday approved legislation that would increase penalties for mail-in ballot fraud involving the elderly, a problem that's nagged Texas elections for decades.

The bill, authored by Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, would increase the penalties for some offenses related to illegally assisting an elderly person with voting, or illegally handling or harvesting a ballot.

A 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 proposed law deals specifically with fraud targeted at residents over the age of 65, and also places tougher penalties on repeat offenders or people with multiple charges for the same election.

"It will reduce illegal assistance," Hancock said Sunday during a hearing of the Senate Committee on State Affairs. "Those that are doing it legally have nothing to fear."

The bill, which seeks to better scrutinize signatures on absentee ballots, passed with a 9-0 vote.

Alan Vera of the Harris County Republican Party added: "This bill is long overdue."

The push to toughen mail-in voter fraud laws comes after a high-profile mail-in ballot scandal in West Dallas and Grand Prairie.

Miguel Hernandez, 27, of Dallas was arrested on a charge of illegal voting, a third-degree felony. He is accused of visiting a woman around April 10 and collecting her blank absentee ballot, then filling it out and forging her signature on it before mailing it to the county, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

During the weeks leading up to the May municipal elections, dozens of senior citizens in West Dallas and Grand Prairie filed complaints saying they had received mail-in ballots that they had not requested. Some of them had also been told their mail-in ballot applications said they had been assisted by a "Jose Rodriguez," a man they didn't know.

At the district attorney's request, a judge ordered the sequestration of 700 ballots that were linked to "Jose Rodriguez," which authorities believed to be a fake name.

The investigation is ongoing, and more arrests are expected.

Most of the testimony at Sunday's hearing was in favor of the bill. Supporters said it was a good step toward stamping out mail-in ballot fraud and the abuse of the elderly or disabled.

The bill would join other measures approved during the regular session that toughen election laws to stamp out fraud.

The legislation is backed by the Texas Republican and Democratic parties and is a priority of Gov. Greg Abbott, who made curbing voter fraud part of the call for the Legislature's 30-day special session.

But Matt Simpson, deputy political director of American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said the bill was too harsh and asked if other strategies could be employed to combat voter fraud.

"I support the spirit of this bill, but the criminal penalties are a bridge too far," Simpson said, saying that adding to the state's prison population was not a good idea.

Chris Davis of the Texas Association of Election Administrators said the bill was a welcome addition to the special session.

"This is the type of common-sense bill we would have liked to have seen in the regular session," he said.

The proposal will reach the Senate floor early this week, and a companion bill will be considered by the Texas House.

CORRECTION, 9:25 a.m., July 24, 2017: An earlier version of this story said Hernandez was wanted on a charge of illegal voting. He was arrested July 12.