Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Travis County for funding a program that will mail out voter registration forms to unregistered voters.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, argues the commissioners court misused taxpayer dollars by hiring Civic Government Solutions to facilitate the program.
The attorney general's office claims the company encourages people to cast ballots for progressive candidates, and that the program will "create confusion, potentially facilitate fraud, and undermine public trust in the election process."
“Travis County has blatantly violated Texas law by paying partisan actors to conduct unlawful identification efforts to track down people who are not registered to vote,” Paxton said in a statement. “Programs like this invite fraud and reduce public trust in our elections. We will stop them and any other county considering such programs.”
Tracy Davis, vice president of marketing at Civic Government Solutions, said in a statement to KUT News that the group is nonpartisan and doesn't use any demographic or political criteria when identifying and assisting unregistered voters.
"If an ineligible person submits an application, the county will reject it," Davis said. "As someone deeply committed to civic engagement, I find it concerning that an initiative to empower Texans and strengthen democratic participation is facing such aggressive opposition."
Paxton's office sued Bexar County on Wednesday for passing a similar item. The complaint argued sending out mailers could inspire noncitizens to illegally register to vote.
Both lawsuits follow an Aug. 26 announcement from Gov. Greg Abbott that more than a million people have been taken off the Texas voter roll since 2021. Paxton's complaint states that over 6,500 of those were noncitizens, and almost 2,000 of them had voted.
Austin officials said Abbott's announcement was a voter intimidation tactic intended to sow doubt about the integrity of the election, and that cleaning up voter rolls is a routine process as residents move or die.
Lydia Camarillo, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, spoke at press conference Thursday debunking those claims.
"No one has ever found that any group, and certainly not Southwest Voter, is registering undocumented people," Camarillo said. "In fact, undocumented folks will tell us, 'Oh no no no, I do not want to get in trouble. I do not want to divide my family. I do not want to be to criminalized and I do not want to be deported or somebody in my family to be deported.'"
In a statement, Travis County spokesperson Hector Nieto said the county is committed to encouraging voter participation.
"It is disappointing that any statewide elected official would prefer to sow distrust and discourage participation in the electoral process," he said.
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