Attorney General Ken Paxton is clamping down on efforts by Texas counties to boost voter registration ahead of the November elections. He's threatening to sue counties that send out voter registration applications to people who haven't specifically requested them.
Ken Paxton has already sued Bexar and Travis Counties – respectively the home counties of San Antonio and Austin – for sending unsolicited voter registration applications to unregistered residents. Now, he's saying he'll do the same for any other county that follows their lead.
Paxton is a Republican, while both Bexar and Travis Counties are led by Democrats.
Paxton sent out a warning that such a use of taxpayer dollars exceeds county authority under state law.
"There is no issue more important to our political system than election security," Paxton said in an email accompanying the advisory notice. "Receiving a voter registration application does not necessarily mean you are eligible to vote. If you are ineligible and attempt to register anyway, you are committing a crime."
Paxton offered no evidence that such illegal voting posed a significant problem.
Harris County was considering sending out a similar mailer, but the time has run out for them to do so. The deadline to register to vote in Texas in this year's election is October 7th.
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