Texas Claims 95K Non-U.S. Citizens Registered To Vote

AUSTIN, TEXAS — State officials on Friday said that some 95,000 non-U.S. citizens were found to have improperly registered to vote, with about 58,000 casting ballots in elections.

Texas Secretary of State David Whitley said in a press advisory the findings were the result of a year-long study of state voter rolls. He added his office coordinated with the Department of Public Safety to identify registered voters who may not be U.S. citizens before referring the list to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who vowed to investigate further.

"Integrity and efficiency of elections in Texas require accuracy of our state's voter rolls, and my office is committed to using all available tools under the law to maintain an accurate list of registered voters," Whitley said in a prepared statement. "Our agency has provided extensive training opportunities to county voter registrars so that they can properly perform list maintenance activities in accordance with federal and state law, which affords every registered voter the chance to submit proof of eligibility."

Thanking the DPS for providing the data, Whitley vowed to use the information "...so that we can continue to guarantee the right to vote for all eligible Texas voters, who should not have their voices muted by those who abuse the system."

Paxton added: “Nothing is more vital to preserving our Constitution than the integrity of our voting process, and my office will do everything within its abilities to solidify trust in every election in the state of Texas,” Paxton said in a prepared statement.

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Republican state lawmakers have long made claims of rampant election fraud despite the lack of longitudinal studies indicating otherwise. In a strident response in light of the secretary of state's findings, Paxton appeared poised to buttress such claims while invoking isolated cases of illegal voting he has previously condemned.

“Every single instance of illegal voting threatens democracy in our state and deprives individual Texans of their voice," he said in his statement. "My Election Fraud Unit stands ready to investigate and prosecute crimes against the democratic process when needed. We have obtained a number of successful non-citizen voter fraud convictions, including prison sentences for Rosa Ortega in Tarrant County and Laura Garza in Montgomery County."

The referenced prosecution of Ortega — a case Paxton aggressively pursued — was decried by many as disproportionate in its resulting eight-year jail sentence handed last year. Ironically, Paxton was among the candidates for which she voted when he ran to retain his current seat.

During her trial, the mother of four children acknowledged the illegality of her 2012 and 2014 votes in Dallas County, but maintained she never meant to break the law. Her attorney argued some government forms allow applicants to declare permanent residency status, but the voting application in neighboring Tarrant County (to where Ortega subsequently moved) had not such option to check off. Lacking the option, she ticked the "citizen" box.

Garza, 38, was recently indicted on two counts of illegal voting, as Paxton announced in a previous advisory. A Mexican citizen, the woman was accused of having stolen another woman's identity to vote illegally, Paxton said at the time. Paxton described how Garza illegally registered to vote in Harris County using the alias Angie Yadira Zamora, an action discovered when the other woman applied for a passport only to learn one already had been issued in her name to another person.

In his statement on Friday, Paxton also noted that his investigators earlier this month arrested Marites Curry, a non-citizen charged with illegal voting in Navarro County. All told, Paxton said, the attorney general’s office prosecuted 97 defendants for numerous voter fraud violations from 2005-2017. Last year, Paxton added, 33 defendants were prosecuted for a total of 97 election fraud violations. Last February, Paxton unveiled a voter fraud initiative in addressing challenges and policy issues related to election law.

As a result of the findings, Whitely said that going forward his office will use DPS information on a monthly basis to cross-reference with the state's voter registration database to match potential non-U.S. citizens registered to vote. Once a voter registration is identified as a match, the Texas Secretary of State's office will notify the county in which the person is registered so that the county voter registrar can take action, Whitley said.

He provided combinations of matches between information in DPS-provided data and the statewide voter registration database are used to identify possible non-U.S. citizens registered to vote:

• Last Name, First Name, and Full Social Security Number;
• Last Name, First Name, and DPS-issued Driver License, Personal Identification Card, or Election Identification Certificate Number; or
• Last Name, First Name, Last Four Digits of Social Security Number, and Date of Birth

If a registered voter is identified as a non-U.S. citizen, the person will receive a Notice of Examination (PDF) from the county voter registrar indicating that registration status is being examined on the grounds he voter is not a U.S. citizen, Whitley added. The registered voter will then be required to provide proof of citizenship in order to stay registered, which may be done by submitting to the voter registrar a copy of one of the following documents:

• A certified copy of the voter's birth certificate
• United States passport; or
• Certificate of naturalization (Citizenship certificate)

If the person responds indicating he or she is not a U.S. citizen, or fails to respond to the notice within 30 days, Whitley added, voter registration will be cancelled by the county voter registrar. "County voter registrars have been provided with numerous training opportunities to ensure that list maintenance activities are conducted in accordance with state and federal law so as to not affect eligible voters," he noted.

The findings were released on the same day that Donald Trump announced an end to a federal government shutdown that has been in effect for more than a month over his unwillingness to have a budget passed without funding for wall construction along the U.S. southern border. On Friday, Trump announced a compromise to re-open the government for three weeks — during which time furloughed workers will be given back pay — before revisiting the issue or shut the government down again come Feb. 15.

Conservative lawmakers (chiefly Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick) have expressed support for building Trump's envisioned wall, but it's unclear if the timing of the election roll findings was coordinated to coincide with the announced federal government re-opening.

In making their announcement, state officials did not provide specifics about the findings — including an overview detailing the countries of origin of voters alleged to have voted illegally.

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