Ken Paxton sues Bexar County over voter registration outreach effort

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Ken Paxton and the GOP are terrified of Texans being able to vote

Link to tweet

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/03/texas-voter-registration-applications-ken-paxton-bexar-county

Bexar County officials moved forward Tuesday with a plan to mail county residents voter registration forms, defying Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to use “all available legal means” to quash the effort.

Paxton followed through Wednesday morning, filing a lawsuit in a state district court in Bexar County that seeks an emergency order to block the program. The lawsuit contends that counties lack the authority to send out unsolicited registration applications, while also arguing that Bexar County officials erred by awarding the contract without going through a competitive bidding process.

The legal clash escalates a brewing fight between Texas Republicans and some of the state’s largest counties over initiatives to proactively send registration applications to people who are eligible but unregistered to vote. Harris County leaders are weighing a similar plan, and Paxton warned the two counties against such efforts Monday evening, claiming they would run afoul of state law and risk adding noncitizens to the voter rolls.

Rebuffing those claims, Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve a $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions following three hours of fervent discussion at Tuesday’s court meeting. Local GOP activists spent more than an hour blasting the deal as an illegal waste of taxpayer money and insisting it would be used to disproportionately register Democrats, citing past comments from the firm’s leaders indicating support for Democratic candidates.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Here is the lawsuit

The Texas GOP is really worried about letting people vote

Link to tweet

[Bolo Boffin]

2. great article on this

The criminal AG Paxton will do everything he can to keep eligible voters from voting.

[flying_wahini]

3. That would be mostly San Antonio. The GOP thieves are bending over backwards to make sure

those (mostly) Hispanic voters stay out of it.

Paxton encourages this crap. They are the most racist group EVER.

[LeftInTX]

4. Bexar County could have done this differently. Harris bowed out.

Last edited Wed Sep 4, 2024, 04:13 PM - Edit history (3)

Bexar County could send letters to each household asking
1 Do you have anyone who recently turned 18?
2 Do you have anyone in your residence who recently moved?
3. Do you know how to check your voter registration? (Give instructions)
4. Do you or anyone in your residence need to update your registration? Then provide methods and make lots of forms available at county offices and libraries
5. Do you have any questions? Provide a hotline
6. If you are not registered or have never registered...provide info

AND to satisfy Paxton, put in big red letters, "Only US citizens can register to vote"

By beefing up the availability of applications, teaching voters how to check their registration, and providing a hotline would go a long way and would probably be more effective.

Instead, they are enlisting Civitech, which the Party has used. Their data is not very good. It targets supposedly "moved" voters or something. I used it in my neighborhood and well...It identified a house as having 10 unregistered voters. Problem is: I know the house. Maybe at one time the home was a rental and people moved away. The former renters are long gone, so mailing them a form won't do any good. (That's because their mail bounced or they have not responded to letters sent by the county)

In Paxton's petition, he is accusing Bexar County of noncompetitive bidding. (Which unfortunately, is true) There is another issue of possibly costing $7/voter. It sounds benign, but quotas and "buying" voters are illegal. I would need to look at the filing. Did Paxton deduce this? Or did Civitech outright state new voters would cost $7 each. It does cost to hire services, so I think a court may give this part a pass. But Civitech should have known better than to state something like this...

According to the County, CGS will mail out 210,000 applications in
hopes of getting 75,000 new registrants, resulting in a 3-4% upswing in votes cast in
the county.
25. The CEO of CGS, Jeremy Smith, (Smith) told the Bexar County
Commissioners Court that CGS would register these voters at an estimated cost of
about $7 per voter

The injunction may be stopped by a local judge, but it will be appealed to the all GOP state supreme court.

This could have been done so much better. Yes, it would have been more expensive to mail a letter to every residence.

It's also telling that our most progressive member on commissioners court abstained.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Texas AG Sues County Over Plan to Mail Out 200K Voter Registration Forms

According to Paul Begala, Texas is not a red state but a non-voting state.

I am glad that Marc Elias is on our side. Paxton is scared to let people vote.

Link to tweet

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/texas-ag-sues-county-over-plan-to-mail-out-200k-voter-registration-forms/

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing one of the state’s most populous counties to block its plan to mail out over 200,000 voter registration forms to residents who are eligible to vote but aren’t registered.

The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to hire a third-party vendor for $392,700 to print and send out 210,000 applications “in hopes of getting 75,000 new registrants,” according to Paxton’s lawsuit, which cites the court’s meeting agenda. The case was filed in state district court.

The Texas Tribune reports the forms will be sent to people who are eligible to vote but aren’t registered.....

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing one of the state’s most populous counties to block its plan to mail out over 200,000 voter registration forms to residents who are eligible to vote but aren’t registered.

The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to hire a third-party vendor for $392,700 to print and send out 210,000 applications “in hopes of getting 75,000 new registrants,” according to Paxton’s lawsuit, which cites the court’s meeting agenda. The case was filed in state district court.

The Texas Tribune reports the forms will be sent to people who are eligible to vote but aren’t registered.

The company hired by the council, Civic Government Solutions (CGS), has sent “more than 10 million mailers since 2018 and has registered approximately 2 million people since 2018,” the complaint says.

[LeftInTX]

6. I don't know how Marc Elias is gonna help with this.

They are using a vendor based on a noncompetitive bid.

Civitech's data is not very good. Civitech used to have a voter registration app. The data was mostly weird and wrong. "Ten people are not registered at this house". Problem is: I knew the people.

The app is now defunct and is featured on the WayBack Machine.

They're the group that sends voter registrations to everyone, like clockwork. "You aren't registered to vote". It goes in the garbage because I know it's not accurate.

Bexar County Elections could have sent letters to every household parroting the SOS's instructions. It would have been much more effective. Then voters would learn how to check their registrations themselves and also would learn how to register to vote.

[Javaman]

7. all this tells me is that Texas is now in play and the repuke fascists are freaking out.

they now have to resort to this type of bullshit.