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List shortens as voter probe continues on

As a lawsuit continues in federal court in San Antonio over an advisory about alleged non-citizens on voter registration rolls, Hays County election officials are continuing their examination of the list of voters whose citizenship was called into question.

Hays County Election Administrator Jennifer Anderson said that so far, of the 365 voters named on the list the state sent to her office, 68 had become naturalized citizens and another 47 had presented citizenship documentation to the Department of Public Safety.

“We were able to eliminate those using resources we have in house,” Anderson said, noting that now her office will be looking for other resources, like statewide databases, to see how many Hays County voters were erroneously placed on the state’s list.

The list came about earlier this year when DPS identified approximately 95,000 individuals as non-U.S. citizens with voter registration records. Lawfully present non-citizens can obtain driver’s licenses in the United States, but only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote, a press release from the state attorney general’s office noted. The people flagged as having questionable citizenship status had given DPS documentation showing that they were in the country legally but no evidence of citizenship when they applied for licenses or identification cards.

After compiling the lists of voters whose citizenship the state called into question, the state sent the lists to local election officials, giving them the option of investigating the voters on the lists. A press release from the Texas Secretary of State’s office stated that approximately 58,000 of those individuals on the DPS list had voted in one or more Texas elections.

However, days later, the state began contacting counties to let them know that some of the voters on those lists were on there erroneously. The Texas Tribune reported that officials in Harris, Travis, Fort Bend, Collin and Williamson counties had said they received calls from the Secretary of State’s office notifying them that some of the voters whose citizenship status was called into question should not be on those lists. The Waco Tribune reported that the state told local election officials that of the 366 people on the list the state sent, none had questionable citizenship status.

The state and national League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, has filed a suit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State David Whitley (who has yet to earn the Texas Senate’s confirmation) over the matter. Julie Hilberg, a naturalized citizen who was flagged in the state’s list, has joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of the Western District of Texas is scheduled to continue a hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on Monday. LULAC is claiming that Paxton and Whitley violated part of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Anderson said that she believes other election officials across the state will be looking for resources to determine voters’ citizenship status — a feat that she said is not easy. For instance, she said, there is no central system to alert election officials about someone’s citizenship status, although since determining citizenship is a routine part of voter registrars’ jobs, such a resource would be handy.

She also noted that when she received the list of names, she did not send out notifications to the voters on the list because she wanted to check the validity of the list first.

“Sending out that notice starts a time clock ticking,” she said, and she did not want to alarm anyone needlessly or start a process that might not even be necessary for people on the list.

The notice recommended by the Secretary of State informs recipients, “Proof of citizenship must be in a certified form of birth certificate, passport or citizenship papers. If you fail to provide this proof of citizenship within 30 days from the date of this letter, your voter registration will be canceled.”

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054