AUSTIN, Texas — Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton has sued two of the state’s largest counties to block efforts to register voters ahead of the November general election, alleging voter suppression by Democrats in the state.
Paxton announced a lawsuit on Friday seeking to prevent Travis County, which includes the state capital of Austin, from using taxpayer dollars to hire a third-party vendor to identify and contact eligible but unregistered voters so they can register before the Oct. 7 deadline.
That followed a lawsuit earlier in the week against Bexar Countyincluding San Antonio; that county hired the same firm for a similar voter registration effort. Paxton has also threatened legal action against Houston’s Harris County if it makes a similar voter registration effort.
Paxton’s lawsuits are the latest round in an ongoing battle between Texas Republicans, who have long dominated state government and insist they are taking steps to strengthen election integrity, and Democrats, who have strongholds in Texas’ largest metropolitan areas and complain that the GOP’s efforts amount to voter suppression, particularly of Latinos.
In the lawsuits, Paxton alleged that the contracts went to a biased vendor and argued that they went beyond the local government’s legal authority. Paxton said Texas law does not explicitly allow counties to send unsolicited registration forms.
“The program will create confusion, potentially facilitate fraud and undermine public confidence in the electoral process,” Paxton said Friday.
Paxton had warned Bexar County officials that he would sue if they went ahead with the project. But the county commission voted Tuesday night to approve the nearly $400,000 contract with Civic Government Solutions, the same firm hired by Travis County. Paxton filed the lawsuit against Bexar County the next day.
Tracy Davis, vice president of marketing at Civic Government Solutions, said the organization is independent.
“Our focus is solely on identifying and helping unregistered individuals. We do not use demographic, political or other criteria,” Davis said. “As someone who is deeply committed to civic engagement, I am concerned that an initiative to empower Texans and increase democratic participation is facing such aggressive opposition.”
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Austin, accused Paxton of trying to suppress the Latino vote ahead of the November general election.
“I applaud the Bexar County Commissioners for not giving in to his threats and moving forward as planned,” Doggett said. “Paxton is so afraid that more Latinos, who make up the majority of the population of Texas, will vote like never before.”
Last month, the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Latin American voting rights organization, called for a federal investigation after volunteers said authorities in Texas searched their homes and seized phones and computers as part of an investigation by Paxton’s office into allegations of election fraud.
No charges have been filed against those who ransacked their homes in San Antonio this month. The targets of the raids, including an 87-year-old campaign volunteer, and their supporters say they did nothing wrong and have called the searches an attempt to suppress Latino voters.
Paxton has said little more than confirming that agents executed search warrants.
