Conservatives in Texas have challenged the eligibility of tens of thousands of people currently registered on the state’s voter database, according to an investigation by Votebeat.
The research, published by Salon, found the eligibility of 12,000 individuals currently listed as being voters had been challenged by just one person in Travis County, with more than 10,000 also facing challenges in each of Tarrant, Collin and Hayes counties.
Republicans have focused heavily on election integrity in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, which GOP nominee Donald Trump claimed was stolen from him via voter fraud. This allegation was repeatedly rejected in court and by independent election and legal experts. In June, the Republican National Committee began recruiting thousands of activists to serve as poll workers, polling station monitors and attorneys in November in what they claimed was a bid to fight electoral fraud.
According to Votebeat, which describes itself as a “nonprofit news organization” focused on local politics, election administrators have received thousands of voter registration challenges since June in Denton, Tarrant, Brazos, Hays, Travis and Collin counties. Citing election officials, the outlet said those making the challenges are claiming the registered voters are ineligible as they are not U.S. citizens, don’t live in the county they are registered in or have died.
Bruce Sherbet, a Collin County elections administrator, said the “vast majority” of challenges concern “the residence of a registered voter.” Others include voters suspected of registering a commercial property as their address.
Brazos County elections administrator Trudy Hancock said each challenge triggers a process to check a voter’s eligibility. She said: “Even though a challenge is filed, doesn’t mean that you will be automatically dropped. There is a process in place to protect the voter who’s been challenged.”
Votebeat reported campaign group True the Vote, which is based in Houston, has played a key role in challenging voter registrations in Texas as well as further afield. On its website, the campaign claims its objective is to “ensure free and fair elections in America.”
Newsweek contacted True the Vote and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, who oversees elections in the state, for comment via online inquiry form and email respectively on Saturday outside of regular office hours.
A woman casting her ballot in the 2020 general election inside the Basset Place Mall in El Paso, Texas on November 3, 2020. Conservative campaigners are reportedly trying to get tens of thousands of people removed from Texas’s electoral rolls claiming they are ineligible to vote.
JUSTIN HAMEL/AFP/GETTY
True the Vote is reportedly using IV3, an online tool which attempts to match U.S. Postal Service change of address records to voter data, to find voters who it believe are registered illegitimate.
The campaign also mounted a challenge to the eligibility of voters in Georgia prior to dual Senate runoff elections in 2021, though these efforts were condemned by district court judge Steve C. Jones in a 145-page legal judgement.
Jones claimed the list of voters True the Vote wanted to challenge “utterly lacked reliability” and “verges on recklessness.”
He added: “The Court has heard no testimony and seen no evidence of any significant quality control efforts, or any expertise guiding the data process.”
Earlier this month, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, claimed the state had taken more than 6,000 non-citizens of its electoral rolls since he assumed office in January 2022. Whilst they can take part in some local elections, non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal or state contests.
On August 10, Politico reported they had been “receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation” amidst growing concerns over the role of cyber breaches on the 2024 presidential race.