AUSTIN – State Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed legal action against the Travis County Commissioners Court, arguing that the government body improperly used taxpayer funds to employ a third-party organization to encourage voter registration efforts without having the lawful authority to do so.
In a Sept. 5 application for injunction, Paxton said he was taking action against the Commissioners “to prevent them from giving a partisan organization thousands of taxpayer dollars to identify the names and addresses of potentially unregistered voters without statutory authority” – and that the defendants’ actions “will create confusion, facilitate fraud, undermine confidence in elections and are illegal ultra vires acts, because they exceed statutory authority.”
“In August 2024, the Travis County Commissioners Court hired a third-party vendor with taxpayer funds to operate a program that would identify residents who were unregistered to vote. The company, Civic Government Solutions, is a subsidiary of a known partisan organization and was contracted to provide services that Travis County is not authorized by Texas law to perform. The program will create confusion, potentially facilitate fraud, and undermine public trust in the election process,” according to a press release from Paxton’s office.
Paxton supported these sentiments in a personal statement.
“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. Programs like this invite fraud and reduce public trust in our elections. We will stop them and any other county considering such programs,” Paxton said.
Civic Government Solutions’ website reads that it “has expertise in developing tools and techniques to help local and state governments and federal agencies reach more voters.”
“We work with you to execute a best-in-class voter registration mail campaign that meets your strategic goals. We use unique data sources, voter registration design best practices, strategically timed chase efforts and transparent and easy-to-digest tracking,” per the company’s website.
The company obtains a variety of source data to create a group of unregistered voters, then mails out customized voter registration forms with pre-paid return envelopes to those same potential voters.
According to Civic Government Solutions, its efforts have resulted in more than 2 million newly-registered voters since 2018.
Hector Nieto, Director of the Public Information Office for Travis County, issued the following statement in response to Paxton’s filing.
“Travis County is committed to encouraging voter participation and we are proud of our outreach efforts that achieve higher voter registration numbers. 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,” Nieto said.
It is not the first time Paxton has initiated legal action against a county in Texas.
Paxton recently sued Bexar County in connection with a program that would send a mass mail-out to unregistered individuals – potentially including to those ineligible to vote – and sent a letter to Harris County warning against passing a voter registration mail-out resolution in that region.
From the Southeast Texas Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com