Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has spent years warning Texans about the perils of “illegal voting,” is now facing awkward questions about his own ballot. Newly surfaced records suggest Paxton cast votes in six elections while still registered at a Collin County address where he may no longer live, all while he campaigns for the U.S. Senate.
Reporters reviewing public documents found that Paxton continued to vote using his Collin County registration in six contests over the last two years, including the March Republican primary and the May runoff that secured him the GOP nomination, according to ProPublica. That reporting links him to a Denton County property purchased by a trust in mid-February, even as his voter registration on paper stayed put in Collin County.
Paxton’s campaign is blasting the coverage, labeling it “a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story” and insisting he remains a lawful, registered Texas voter, the Houston Chronicle reports. The Chronicle also notes that the newsrooms involved say they vetted property, trust, and voting records before publishing, anticipating that the attorney general’s team would come out swinging.
Election-law specialists told reporters that figuring out where someone legally “resides” for voting purposes is a messy, fact-heavy process that rarely produces easy answers. Still, they pointed out that casting a ballot while ineligible is a second-degree felony in Texas, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to ProPublica. Some experts also noted that Paxton’s public separation from his wife could make it harder to argue that any move away from the Collin County home was only temporary.
The reporting, co-published by The Texas Tribune, also sketches out the political fallout that could be coming. Paxton has built his brand around aggressive election-integrity efforts, and his Democratic challenger, state Rep. James Talarico, has already been highlighting the attorney general’s long legal history on the campaign trail.
What Comes Next
Whether any of this turns into a criminal case is still an open question. Election-law experts told reporters that residency prosecutions are unusual and depend heavily on proving a voter’s intent, according to the Houston Chronicle. Viewers who want to see the back-and-forth play out can watch FOX 26 Houston’s July 12 segment, which walks through the reporting and Paxton’s denial. For now, the revelations are poised to hang over the fall campaign and invite even closer scrutiny of how, and where, the attorney general has been casting his own ballot.
