In a recent lawsuit, the battle over voter registration in Texas has seen Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's efforts to halt a Travis County voter outreach program shift back to state court. The federal court determined it lacked jurisdiction, a contention put forth by Travis County officials, according to The Texas Tribune. This is only the latest maneuver in a pre-election fray marked by Republican assertions of securing voter rolls against what Democrats claim as attempts to suppress votes.
Prior to the legal tug-of-war, Travis County had hired Civic Government Solutions in August to identify and register eligible non-registered voters, a push within a county that votes predominately Democratic. Paxton, lodging a suit on September 5, accused the county of activities that could potentially illegally register non-citizens. As reported by Raw Story, Paxton declared, “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.” A Travis County Court denied Paxton’s emergency request to block the program on September 16.
The following day, Travis County officials shifted the lawsuit to federal court, invoking protections under the federal National Voter Registration Act. Additionally, officials filed a separate lawsuit accusing Paxton and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson of impeding their voter registration duties under the same act. The Texas Tribune shared county spokesperson Hector Nieto’s statement, “Travis County is committed to encouraging voter participation and we are proud of our outreach efforts that achieve higher voter registration numbers." Civic Government Solutions' CEO Jeremy Smith assured that their efforts would be strictly nonpartisan with protocols to prevent registering noncitizens.
Travis County's actions are under a larger spotlight, as Paxton has also sued Bexar County over similar issues. Meanwhile, Governor Greg Abbott announced the removal of nearly 1 million names from the state's voter rolls, raising questions among voter rights advocates. The Texas Tribune highlighted concerns from groups cautioning that past attempts to identify noncitizens on Texas voter rolls have been flawed. Democratic lawmakers have called on the Justice Department to review these and other election-related actions which they allege are aimed to hinder voting among communities of color.
