Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Bexar County officials over their plan to mail voter registration forms to county residents.
According to The Texas Tribune, Paxton claims the county lacks the authority to send unsolicited registration forms and argues that the contract was awarded without proper competitive bidding.
The legal action, filed on September 4, 2024, escalates a growing conflict between Texas Republicans and urban counties regarding voting initiatives. The lawsuit comes just one day after the Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve a $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions.
This decision was made despite Paxton's prior warnings to both Bexar and Harris counties, claiming such efforts would violate state law and risk adding noncitizens to voter rolls. The Attorney General's office is seeking an emergency order to block the program.
Bexar County officials have defended their decision to move forward with the voter registration outreach program. Democratic commissioners, supported by a county legal official, argued that Paxton's legal threats were unfounded and misleading. They emphasized that the outreach efforts would be strictly nonpartisan, as required by the contract.
Jeremy Smith, CEO of Civic Government Solutions, addressed concerns about potential partisan bias in the program. He explained that the company uses a combination of public records and county data to identify eligible but unregistered voters, with a contractual obligation to contact all eligible individuals identified through these datasets.
Larry Roberson, chief of the civil division at the Bexar County District Attorney's Office, differentiated this case from a previous legal challenge in 2020 involving mail-in ballot applications. He noted that voter registration applications are widely available in public locations, unlike the more restricted mail-in ballot applications.
The approval of the outreach contract faced strong opposition from local GOP activists, who spent over an hour criticizing the deal during the Commissioners Court meeting. They argued that the initiative was an illegal waste of taxpayer money and expressed concerns that it would disproportionately register Democrats.
Paxton's lawsuit and previous warnings to counties cite concerns about the potential registration of noncitizens. In his letters to Bexar and Harris counties, he linked these concerns to what he described as a sharp increase in illegal border crossings during President Biden's administration.
Republican Commissioner Grant Moody, the lone dissenting vote on the court, echoed these concerns:
Even if the process was designed to be nonpartisan … when you are operating in the most Democrat[-leaning] counties, then you're going to have a partisan impact.
Democratic officials have pushed back against claims of potential voter fraud and noncitizen registration. They argue that existing safeguards in the voter registration process are sufficient to prevent such issues. These safeguards include checks by the Texas Secretary of State's Office against Department of Public Safety and Social Security Administration data.
Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, a Democrat, dismissed concerns about noncitizens attempting to register and vote illegally. She characterized the Republican criticism as a "dog and pony show" based on false rhetoric aimed at intimidating potential voters. Clay-Flores stated:
I am continuously talking to migrants, and none of them are trying to figure out how to vote illegally. They are concerned with getting food, and clothes on their backs.
In conclusion, the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against Bexar County has intensified the debate over voter registration outreach efforts. The legal challenge centers on the county's authority to send unsolicited registration forms and the potential risks of noncitizen registration. Bexar County officials defend the initiative as a nonpartisan effort to increase voter participation, while Republicans express concerns about its impact and legality.
