Two Texas officials were sued this week after they were accused of violating the National Voter Registration Act.
On Wednesday, officials in Travis County, Texas, filed lawsuits against the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State Jane Nelson over alleged attempts to block voter registration efforts ahead of the November presidential election.
The new federal lawsuit intensifies a preelection battle between Republican state officials and Democratic leaders in urban counties over voter registration efforts. It accuses Texas officials of violating the National Voter Registration Act. As the October 7 registration deadline approaches, the ongoing dispute unfolds.
“Today, Travis County, once again, fights back,” Travis County Attorney Delia Garza said on Tuesday.
Newsweek reached out to Paxton’s office via email for comment.
The federal lawsuit comes in response to Paxton’s efforts in state courts to block Travis County from mailing voter registration applications to eligible but unregistered voters. Travis County, home to Austin, has been a long-standing Democratic stronghold in Texas.
Paxton previously filed his own lawsuit, arguing that the Texas Election Code doesn’t give county officials the authority to collect private citizen information for voter registration efforts, making such actions illegal. However, Democrats, local leaders, and election experts dispute Paxton’s interpretation of the law.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 23. Paxton was sued by officials from Travis County, Texas, for allegedly violating the National Voter Registration Act.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images
In interviews with conservative media and on social platforms, Paxton has falsely accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of deliberately allowing undocumented immigrants into the country to boost Democratic votes. Similar claims have been echoed by former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, including during this month’s debate against Harris, the Democratic contender.
“Travis County has blatantly violated Texas law by paying partisan actors to conduct unlawful identification efforts to track down people who are not registered to vote,” Paxton said in a statement earlier this month. “Programs like this invite fraud and reduce public trust in our elections. We will stop them and any other county considering such programs.”
Jeremy Smith, the head of Civic Government Solutions, a company used by Travis County to identify unregistered voters, denied that the company used partisan tactics.
“All of our contracts, 100% of them, are nonpartisan. It is written in,” Smith said. “We are under restrictions and obligations to prove that and maintain that and provide that data for accountability back to all of our clients.”
Garza said the new legal filings move Paxton’s state lawsuit to federal court, where Travis County officials seek permission to continue sending voter registration applications. The filing comes just a day after a judge denied Paxton’s request to block Bexar County, a Democratic stronghold and home to San Antonio, from mailing registration forms. The court ruled there was no basis for the request, as the county had already sent out the applications.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.