Texas secretary of state resigns after being caught in fake 'voter fraud' scheme

It was not a good Memorial Day for Acting Texas Secretary of State David Whitley.

Whitley was forced to resign on Monday after it became clear that the state Senate was not going to confirm him, the man Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appointed to run the state’s elections, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Whitley’s roughly five-month-long tenure as acting secretary of state was an utter disaster almost from the start.

In January, a little more than a month into the job, Whitley falsely claimed that 95,000 non-citizens were registered to vote in Texas and that 58,000 of them had voted in elections over the course of two decades.

Whitley used that baseless claim — which earned praise from Trump — to then wage a purge of the voter rolls, targeting mostly Hispanic voters, who largely vote Democratic.

Whitley was ultimately sued over the racist purge, which a federal judge ruled violated the law. The judge ordered the state to stop purging people from the rolls.

As part of another lawsuit, Whitley also agreed to admit that his claim saying 95,000 non-citizens were on Texas’ voter rolls was a lie and that the state would notify anyone whose registration was questioned that they are still legally registered to vote and were not at risk of being purged.

Because Whitley was merely acting secretary of state, his nomination had to be approved by the state Senate.

Democrats in the chamber blocked Whitley’s nomination throughout the chamber’s entire session, up until Monday — when the legislative session was set to expire. And since the state Senate was slated to end its session, it became clear that Whitley would not get confirmed, so he submitted his letter of resignation to Abbott.

In the letter, Whitley took no responsibility for his insidious lie about voter fraud.

Abbott then accepted Whitley’s resignation, praising Whitley’s “moral character and integrity.”

What else can you expect from the Texas Republican Party, which passed a law during the legislative session to finish what Whitley had started and try to legally purge Hispanic voters from the rolls?

Texas Republicans — scared of a shifting electorate that is trending Democratic — would rather change the rules to win instead of appealing to the voters of their state.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.