Ken Paxton’s office sues to block Bexar County’s voter registration effort

AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Bexar County Commissioners Court on Wednesday to block county plans to send voter registration forms to unregistered voters.
The commissioners court agreed Tuesday to pay almost $400,000 to Civic Government Solutions to print and mail voter registration forms with postage-paid return envelopes to adults who aren’t registered to vote. The vote was 3-1, with one member abstaining.
The approval came despite a Tuesday letter from Paxton warning Bexar and Harris counties against adopting proposals to mass mail registration forms.
Paxton is asking a state district judge in San Antonio to prevent the mass mailing, arguing the effort violates the law and “potentially invites election fraud.”
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“Despite being warned against adopting this blatantly illegal program that would spend taxpayer dollars to mail registration applications to potentially ineligible voters, Bexar County has irresponsibly chosen to violate the law,” Paxton said in a statement. “It is a crime to register to vote if you are ineligible.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the registration effort was an attempt to improve “abysmal” voter turnout since the last presidential election.
“It just makes common sense to me that voter registration, voter turnout have to go hand in hand,” Sakai said. “If you don’t have registered voters, then you ain’t got voters.”
Responding to the lawsuit Wednesday, Sakal said the county has the authority to mail the registration documents.
“We asked for and received a legal opinion that Bexar County is within its authority to send registration applications to citizens,” Sakai said. “We are confident we can defend that position, if needed, in a court of law.”
He also rejected arguments that the effort could lead to election fraud, saying safeguards by the Texas secretary of state’s office and local election officials ensure the integrity of voter rolls.
Paxton’s lawsuit argued that Texas’ election law doesn’t empower any voter registrar or county official “to arrange for the mass mailing of voter registration forms unsolicited.” It also said the law “prohibits performance-based compensation for registering voters” while noting the commissioners court appears to have “premised the contract price on the number of voters contacted and/or registered.”
A mass mailing program, the lawsuit added, would send the wrong message to ineligible voters, resulting in applications from people who can’t legally vote.
“A governmental entity sending voter registration applications may cause recipients who are ineligible to vote to believe they may register,” the lawsuit says. “At best, applications sent to these individuals will simply go unused. More likely, these excess applications will become ripe material for voter fraud.”
The lawsuit comes after the attorney general’s office launched an email tip line to report possible election fraud and conducted raids last month at the homes of Latino organizers in South Texas, including a Democratic state House candidate and a legislative staffer. Paxton obtained search warrants related to allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting during the 2022 elections. Latino leaders have asked for a federal investigation, calling the raids a voter intimidation effort.
Paxton has also announced an investigation into claims that third-party groups are registering noncitizens to vote outside driver’s license offices. The attorney general’s Election Integrity Unit launched undercover operations shortly after a conservative news anchor’s social media complaint went viral. No wrongdoing has been identified, and a GOP county chair who investigated the allegation said it was “erroneous.”
Gov. Greg Abbott also announced last month that more than 1 million people were removed from the state’s voter rolls since he signed an election integrity and security bill into law in 2021. That list included about 6,500 “potential noncitizens,” Abbott said.