This week Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Bexar County officials over the plan to increase voter registration by mailing voter registration forms to unregistered residents. Paxton is asking a state district court to block the effort. Paxton claims that it will entice felons and non-citizens to register to vote. Paxton spoke about the lawsuit to Michael Berry on Talk Radio, KTRH.
Here's how Barry set up that interview: “Ken Paxton, he has taken a very aggressive approach, which is the only way to deal with this issue over the issue of voter fraud. Bexar County, which is spelled B-E-X-A-R, is where San Antonio is, and Harris County is where City of Houston is," said Berry. "And these two counties are known as hotbeds of voter fraud, cheating. And the local governments are involved with it."
There's no evidence to support the claim that Bexar and Harris counties are hotbeds of voter fraud or cheating. And there is no evidence that local officials are engaged in voter fraud.
And here's what Paxton said about his lawsuit: “We just sued late last night. We sued Bexar, which is San Antonio, for what we believe is sending out illegal registration forms. They've got this group that is affiliated with very liberal politicians that is sending out registration forms to all kinds of people, some likely ineligible to vote, which encourages illegal registration. And counties are not specifically permitted to do this. And the way our laws work in Texas, counties have to be statutorily or constitutionally authorized to do what they do. They can't just make stuff up,” said Paxton.
What Bexar County is doing is working with a third-party vendor, Civic Government Solutions. This company has worked with the Texas Secretary of State's office in the past, and its outreach targets potential voters regardless of political affiliation.
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I spoke with Texas Congressman Collin Allred about this lawsuit. Allred is the Democratic candidate running for US Senate against Ted Cruz.
Allred: I think it's outrageous. I think it's deeply un-American, and it's also unsurprising. This is a government entity sending out voter registration forms to folks for them to then fill out themselves to send back in. And then the state of Texas is the one that will determine their eligibility in terms of whether or not they can be registered. And so for the Attorney General to base this on the idea that non-citizens will be registered from this, is he saying that the state of Texas is incapable of determining who's a citizen and who's not? I think we know that's absurd. I think we know what's actually going on here as they're trying to scare folks and trying to make Texans feel like being involved in their democracy is not for them. And that's deeply, deeply Texan, but non-American.
DMD: So we're looking at a pattern here. A couple of weeks ago, the Attorney General's office sent law enforcement officers to multiple homes in South Texas. These were voter registrars and also Cecilia Castellano, who is a Democratic candidate for the Texas House, seizing their phones and forcing them out of their homes in early morning hours. People are calling this a voter intimidation. LULAC is calling for a federal investigation into this. What is your reaction?
Allred: Well, I do think that this is a form of intimidation, particularly the way that it was done. And let's be very clear, LULAC is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country. They are not certainly new to the idea of trying to be involved with civic engagement, but we've seen this before. We've seen this in previous election cycles, particularly though now that we are having a very close election in which I'm running against Senator Cruz, of course, but what we're going to see a close election here, that we see these stunts coming up. And what I want Texans to do is to recognize what's happening, to not be intimidated and to say, 'If they're trying to stop me, if are they trying to stop me? It must be because my vote is powerful. I'm going to get out and I'm going to use it.'"
DMD: Ken Paxton, Attorney General, is saying he's doing this because he's trying to make the elections secure. It's for voter integrity. What’s your reaction?
Allred: There's nothing that would secure an election regarding helping eligible voters get registered. And this is something that I really want Texans to think about is that we want to make it so that every eligible voter can make their voice heard and their democracy. That should be our goal not to try and target certain groups or to try and intimidate certain Texans into not being involved in not making their voice heard. There's a reason why they're doing this, and I want Texans to not only not let it work, but to stand up to it. And for us all to recognize that our democracy is a precious right. That the folks who came before us and the generations that came before us have been working to perfect and to expand and to make sure that we all have a say in who our leaders are and what Attorney General Paxton is doing. It flies in the face of our great history as Texans is the Texan who passed the Voting Rights Act and the first place in President Linda Baines Johnson, but also in the fundamentals of what our nation was founded on. And we can let this work, we have to recognize what it is, and we have to call it out for what it's.
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So the question is, are Texas Republican leaders like State Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott using the power of state government to suppress voting in populations likely to vote for Democrats?
That's the allegation that groups like LULAC, the League of United, Latin American Citizens, are making. After a series of events over the last several weeks, Paxton has used the AG office to support his claim that he's only working to protect voter integrity in Texas leading into the November 5th election.
But voter fraud is extremely rare. It has never been shown to decide the outcome of a general election race in Texas.
But voter suppression is not rare. The state has a long history of using its power to keep unwanted legal voters from being able to vote.
This is why several weeks ago when Paxton sent law enforcement officials to raid South Texas democratically aligned voter registrars, that sent up red flags.
To get reaction to Paxton's raids we heard from LULAC state director Gabriel Rosales.
