Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is waging a legal battle over a county program that he says unlawfully mailed thousands of voter registration applications to unverified residents.
Earlier this month, officials in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio and surrounding areas, voted to send registration forms to county residents despite a threat from Paxton to shut down the effort.
On Sept. 3, members of the Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve the $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions, an outside firm, according to The Texas Tribune.
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The commission held the vote just one day after Paxton warned the Bexar County Commissioners Court about the proposed plan to employ “a third-party vendor to mail voter registration forms to individuals regardless of the eligibility of the recipients,” which Paxton said “would violate the law.”
“It is unlawful and reckless for counties to use taxpayer dollars to indiscriminately send voter registration forms with no consideration of the recipients’ eligibility and without any statutory authority to do so,” Paxton warned. “These counties’ attempts to do so after the Biden-Harris Administration has allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter the country are especially troubling.”
After county officials approved the plan the following day, Paxton filed suit against Bexar County. When the Attorney General’s office tried to schedule a hearing for a temporary restraining order, Bexar County said it needed additional time to prepare for the lawsuit, according to Paxton.
Judge Toni Arteaga denied Paxton’s request for a temporary restraining order on Monday because the forms were already sent out to residents.
In response, Paxton’s office appealed the ruling Monday and “will continue seeking appropriate remedies.”
“In a display of bad faith, Bexar County engaged in dirty tricks to avoid appropriate judicial review of a clearly unlawful program that invites voter fraud,” Paxton said in a statement. “These actions demonstrate that Bexar County knew what they were doing was wrong, yet expedited the mailout of unsolicited registration forms before the issue could be argued in court.
“I will fight every step of the way to hold them accountable.”
In 2020, over 58% of voters in Bexar County cast their ballot for President Joe Biden, a Democrat, compared with just over 40% for former President Donald Trump, a Republican who ultimately went on to win the state of Texas by a 52-46% margin.
Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced election officials have removed over 1 million people from the state’s voter rolls since 2021, including 457,000 “deceased people” and 6,500 “potential noncitizens.”
“Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated,” Abbott said in a statement. “We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.”
