State GOP Officials Attempt To Limit Voter Registration Outreach

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues to forge ahead on what voter and civil rights advocates describe as his “voter suppression” campaign after warning Harris and Bexar county officials to pause their respective efforts to increase voter registration.

In a press release on Monday, Paxton rebuked the proposed plans to mail voter registration forms to unregistered voters in both counties, referring to them as “unlawful and reckless.” Despite Paxton’s threat to pursue legal action, Bexar County commissioners voted to approve the measure on Tuesday.

The attorney general argued that these efforts could “induce ineligible people” — such as felons and noncitizens — to commit a crime by registering to vote. He added that Texas counties have “no statutory authority” to send out voter registration forms, making the proposals “fundamentally illegal.”

According to Rice University political science professor Mark Jones, the Texas Election code does not say counties “should or must or can” send out mass mailings of voter registration forms to people they believe may not be registered to vote yet are eligible.

However, he noted that by the same token, nowhere in legislation does it say that counties cannot.

“The more recent interpretation by the Republican-controlled state legislature has been that if the statute does not explicitly say that counties have the ability, they can’t do it,” Jones said.

Jones indicated that Paxton used this interpretation to back his argument that these efforts are illegal. As of Tuesday evening, Paxton had not responded to Bexar County officials’ decision to hire a private company to mail out voter registration forms to residents.

“If the attorney general tells you not to do something, and you do it on a partisan vote, then you’re just looking for there to be a lawsuit or legislation changes as a result,” Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) said.

Bettencourt reiterated concerns that these proposals could encourage those who “have green cards from various countries” or “people who cross the border illegally” to vote. He said claims that blocking these plans is a form of voter suppression was “nonsense and propaganda.”

Paxton announced his intention to pursue litigation against both counties roughly a week after his office conducted raids related to an investigation into alleged voter fraud.

Several members of Latino and Hispanic nonprofit organizations, including Manuel Medina, the chair of Tejano Democrats, and Lidia Martinez, a more than 35-year-long member of LULAC, were targeted in undercover operations. Medina is also a member of LULAC.

The organization asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Paxton’s office for violations of the Voting Rights Act.

“[Paxton] is misusing and abusing government power. Those on our side do not have that government power,” Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said. “It’s not a fair match when he is abusing his authority as attorney general, chief prosecutor in the state of Texas, to scare people.”

Saenz noted the timing of Paxton’s actions indicates that he is attempting to suppress participation in November and, more specifically, attempting to curb the engagement of Latino and Hispanic voters.

“It is clear he is trying to suppress votes in the Latino community, and that’s not particularly surprising because Texas has engaged in a decades-long campaign to suppress Latino participation,” Saenz said. “Paxton and others know that if there were a high-level participation by Latinos, then Texas politics would change permanently.”

“There is no evidence of significant numbers, even insignificant numbers, of noncitizens voting,” he added. “It’s arguing about a non-issue and is designed to cloud everyone’s perception to believe his campaign is about ineligible voters when it’s all about deterring participation by completely eligible voters.

Paxton’s actions follow Governor Greg Abbott’s announcement of the removal of over a million people from Texas’s voter rolls. In a statement, Abbott framed the purge of these once-registered voters as part of cracking down on illegal voting and protecting election integrity.

“I think Abbott strategically used that rhetoric to fire up his base, especially the far-right conservatives,” Dr. Sergio Lira, president of the Houston-area LULAC, said. “To say it was done to eliminate the possibility of election fraud implies that there will be election fraud from those who are not citizens or legal residents. That is a sweeping statement across many folks that live in our city.”

Political experts say that the removals were part of routine maintenance of voter rolls by the Texas Secretary of State and county voter registrars. Most were also a result of voters dying or moving out of state — not of voters being noncitizens.

Rice University political science professor Bob Stein noted that of the more than 1.1 million voters removed, only about 6,500 were verified to be noncitizens.

“It strikes me that what [Paxton] is doing, along with the governor, is responding to recent events. Event number one is polling, showing that Trump and Cruz are in much closer races than what might be hoped for or expected,” Stein said. “What I think is also problematic to them is a tremendous increase in voter registration.”

According to Stein, Abbott is signaling to Republican voters that the party is taking action against election fraud. Paxton is doing the same by launching these investigations and seeing them through.

“Why now and why these actions? I think they’re concerned that the attack on election integrity, which has been extensive, has affected Republican voter turnout,” he noted. “I think it’s about reassuring Republicans that they should show up in November.”

Stein described the number of people voting as noncitizens or felons from the recently removed list — as an “infinitesimal” amount.

“So, you can conclude that the state is doing a very good job of cleaning the list, and two, there are really very few people who shouldn’t be voting that are voting,” he said.

During last week’s Commissioners Court meeting, Harris County Commissioner’s Court tabled a proposed plan similar to Bexar County’s. The commissioners have not indicated whether it would be put back on the agenda.

Jones said if the commissioners reviewed a revised version of the proposal, they’d be on a time crunch to send out the voter registration forms to unregistered residents. The final day to register to vote is Monday, October 7.