Ken Paxton sues Travis County to block voter registration efforts

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Travis County to block an effort to register more voters before the November election.

The Texas Tribune and Votebeat obtained a draft copy of the lawsuit.

Paxton’s lawsuit follows a decision by the Travis County commissioners to hire Civic Government Solutions to contact non-registered county residents and encourage them to register. Travis County includes Austin.

“We just thought it was nice thing to do,” said Ann Howard, a Travis County Commissioner at The Texas Tribune Festival shortly after news of the lawsuit was made public.

Paxon, in a statement, called the decision illegal.

“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. “Programs like this invite fraud and reduce public trust in our elections. We will stop them and any other county considering such programs.”

A spokesperson for the county said the commissioners stood by their decision.

“Travis County is committed to encouraging voter participation and we are proud of our outreach efforts that achieve higher voter registration numbers,” said spokesperson Hector Nieto. “We remain steadfast in our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the voter registration process while ensuring that every eligible person has the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. It is disappointing that any statewide elected official would prefer to sow distrust and discourage participation in the electoral process.”

Paxton took a similar step earlier this week when he sued Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, the state’s second most populous city. And last month, Harris County, the state’s most populous, stopped short of taking similar steps.

Jeremy Smith, the CEO of Civic Government Solutions, denied being a partisan organization, a charge made by Paxton.

“The company is not partisan at all, the company’s bylaws and mission and fiduciary responsibilities are all expressly nonpartisan,” Smith told The Texas Tribune Friday. “All of our contracts, 100% of them, are nonpartisan. It is written in. We are under restrictions and obligations to prove that and maintain that and provide that data for accountability back to all of our clients.””As a general matter, these are purely nonpartisan efforts.”

Harris, Bexar and Travis counties are all Democratic strongholds in a reliably Republican state. The lawsuits are part of a series of steps both Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott — both Republicans — have taken in recent weeks to “safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote.” Late last month, Abbott announced the state had removed roughly a million people from its voter rolls since he signed a legislative overhaul of election laws in 2021. However, election experts cautioned that both federal and state law already required regular voter roll maintenance, and that Abbott’s comments could be used to undermine trust in elections.

Natalia Contreras and Berenice Garcia contributed.

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune