Texas attorney general sues over Bexar County voter registration program

SAN ANTONIO (CN) — Making good on his threats to sue one of the state’s most populated — and Democratic-leaning counties — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing Bexar County of enacting an illegal voter registration program.

“This program is completely unlawful and potentially invites election fraud,” Paxton said in a statement immediately after filing the lawsuit in state court. “It is a crime to register to vote if you are ineligible.”

County commissioners voted 3-1 on Tuesday in favor of a $392,700 contract for third-party company Civic Government Solutions to print and mail voter registration forms to unregistered voters “in location(s) based on targeting agreed to by the county,” according to the resolution.

The vote in Bexar County came after an intense public comment period where several Republicans activists criticized the county’s voter registration effort as a waste of taxpayer money, and despite Paxton’s warning letter to commissioners Monday that he would sue. Bexar County is home to San Antonio and the fourth most populated county in the Texas with over 2 million residents.

In his letter and lawsuit seeking an emergency order to halt the program, Paxton claims commissioners are without authority to mail unsolicited voter registration applications, which he says “will create confusion, facilitate fraud (and) undermine confidence in elections.”

But commissioners who voted in favor of the voter registration push were undeterred, calling Paxton’s threats “false rhetoric,” and a misinterpretation of the election code. At one point during the lively three-hour meeting, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai asked security to “ramp it up” and threatened to clear the meeting room.

“This is not a partisan issue from my perspective, this is about democracy with a lowercase ‘d’ and making sure people have access,” said Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who voted in favor of the measure. “And this is one way that I think we can do that.”

“Larry, are we doing anything illegal where Ken Paxton can sue?” Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores asked of Larry Roberson, chief of the civil division of the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.

“Commissioner, Ken Paxton can sue but I read through the letter, I found it to be misleading at best,” Roberson said.

“False rhetoric,” Clay-Flores said, nodding her head.

“I think so,” he said.

Paxton's 19-page lawsuit, drafted the same day as the commissioner's vote, names as defendants Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen, Sakai and all four Bexar County commissioners.

Civic Government Solutions CEO Jeremy Smith told commissioners Tuesday that they are not among the specific group of officials barred from mailing voter registration applications to residents.

“It is only the elections administrator who is forbidden,” Smith smith. “So our legal review is it is absolutely legal…but I absolutely defer to your county attorney.”

Smith disputed Paxton’s claim that his company is a partisan organization, saying the goal of Civil Government Solutions “is to register the whole state,” adding that he has reached out to every county and has gone through “great pains” to ensure its operations are nonpartisan. He said that the company makes more money from registering more people.

“In its bylaws it is nonpartisan, in its mission it is nonpartisan, all of its contracts are nonpartisan,” Smith said.

Paxton, who is closely aligned with former President Donald Trump, has taken aggressive steps to investigate and litigate potential voter fraud claims, which has only increased ahead of the November elections. Last week the League of United Latin American Citizens asked the Justice Department to investigate election-related raids conducted by Paxton's office targeting several Democratic members of the Latino civil rights organization, which they claim was a voter suppression and intimidation effort.

Democrats have also condemned Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s announcement last week that his office removed over 1 million people from the state’s voter rolls who were found to be ineligible, including those who have moved out of state, are deceased and are noncitizens.

On Wednesday, Paxton told the conservative outlet Newsmax that he “absolutely” believes that immigrants who have come into the United States since President Joe Biden has been in office could be voting in the November elections.

“Absolutely I think it’s happening, and I think that was the plan all along.”

To be eligible to vote in Texas, residents must be a U.S. citizen, be at least 18 years old on Election Day, and be a resident of the county where they applied to register to vote. Convicted felons are not allowed to vote until they have completed their sentence and any probation periods, and those declared by a court to be mentally incapacitated are also barred from voting. 

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