Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent San Antonio’s county leaders from sending in excess of 200,000 applications for voter registration to residents in Bexar County who are currently unregistered.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday by Paxton, comes a few days after he warned officials in Bexar County by sending them a letter. He warned the officials, most of whom are Democrats, that they shouldn’t proceed with sending the mailing out.
Despite Paxton’s warning, the governing commissioners of the county voted 3-1 on Tuesday to approve that proposal.
In addition to this suit, Paxton has threatened to file a lawsuit against Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, which is a stronghold for Democrats. Officials there have been discussing whether they should proceed with a similar effort that’s meant to increase how many registered voters there are.
The deadline to register and still be eligible to vote in November’s election is early October.
It’s the latest chapter in a conflict that has lasted a few years now between the Republicans in Texas who dominate the state’s government and the local officials of the state’s largest urban areas, most of whom are Democrats.
It’s also not the only fight over voter registration efforts in the country.
The presidential campaign for GOP nominee Donald Trump, in fact, is working to try to stop an effort by the state of Michigan to expand voter registration at different federal offices.
Just last month, nine state attorneys general who are Republican filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration regarding an executive order that’s three years old now, and which directed the federal government to expand voter registration.
Over the last few weeks, Texas state officials have amped up their aggression to prevent what Paxton said are efforts to circumvent the strict election rules in the state that could ultimately lead to voter fraud come the election in November.
In the Lone Star State, the focus isn’t just on the presidential election, though. Incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz is locked in a very tight battle with Representative Colin Allred, who’s a former player in the NFL.
Some polls show that Allred, who’s a Democrat from Dallas, is only behind by a few points.
In August, officials from the AG’s office executed a raid at the homes of several election volunteers and Democratic leaders near San Antonio. Some of the party workers whose homes were raided were in their 70s and 80s.
The focus of Paxton’s investigation is on potential vote harvesting and election fraud.
Paxton also said recently that he was investigating if state groups have been registering non-citizens to vote. He even set up an email “tip line” so the public can report “suspected violations of Texas election law.”
Republican Governor Greg Abbott further released data in August that suggested that as many as 2,000 non-citizens may have registered to vote, and actually voted, in Texas since back in 2021.
