Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the secretary of state to identify registered voters who don’t have a Texas driver’s license or ID card.
Paxton said in a Wednesday letter to Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson that his goal is to use that list to stop noncitizen voting and investigate potential voter fraud.
In a post on X about the request, Paxton wrote, “Texans cannot afford to lose another second waiting for their vote and their voice to be protected from illegal ballots.”
Paxton gave Nelson a deadline of Friday to respond as to whether she can fill his request.
The Texas AG’s latest move is another example of Republicans' recent focus on the specter of voter fraud from noncitizens, a narrative being pushed by GOP leaders across the country leading up to the 2024 election.
(It should be noted there’s no credible evidence this, or voter fraud in general, happens in significant numbers.)
While Paxton has given Nelson a Friday deadline, his letter doesn’t explicitly say what he’d do if he is able to get the list.
Usually, states have an ongoing process for removing ineligible voters. Texas recently announced it has done that to more than a million people since 2021.
However, at this point in the election cycle, removal by this routine process is not an option due to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
That act prevents states from removing the names of ineligible voters from the voter rolls 90 days before a federal election. There are only a few exceptions: voters who voluntarily cancel their voter registration, voters who are deceased, voters who are adjudicated as mentally incapacitated or those who are finally convicted of a felony (people in the process of appealing a felony conviction are eligible to vote).
The 90-day list maintenance moratorium for the Nov. 5 general election was August 7.
