Paxton sues Travis County over voter registration attempt

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Friday in an attempt to prevent Travis County from hiring an outside firm to find people eligible to vote who are not registered.

The Travis County Commissioners Court voted unanimously last month to hire Civic Government Solutions to provide the names and addresses of eligible resident citizens. The cost to the county is estimated at about $3,600 per 10,000 names.

In the lawsuit, Paxton accuses the company of being “partisan,” which the company has denied. In addition to the suit against Travis County and commissioners, the attorney general has also sued Bexar County, which hired the same firm to find residents who are eligible but not registered to vote.

Travis County Judge Andy Brown appeared Friday on a panel at The Texas Tribune Festival, along with Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Hidalgo noted that her county decided not to hire the firm after the attorney general’s office warned them that they would be sued.

Brown told the gathering that “Texas is one of the hardest states” in which to register to vote “and one of the few that still refuse to allow online registration.”

Referring to Paxton and other unnamed Republicans, Brown said, “They are, I believe, making decisions to disenfranchise voters, to make it harder to vote in the state of Texas, and so I guess … their end game is to try to hold on to power.” He went on to say that he was not talking about all Republicans in Texas, but added, “it does seem like General Paxton is trying to keep people from voting.”

A Travis County spokesperson, Hector Nieto, released a statement saying the county was “upholding 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.”

Paxton said in a press release, “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.”

In his lawsuit, the attorney general asks that a Travis County District Court judge issue a temporary restraining order, to be followed by a temporary injunction and then a permanent injunction. The suit also names Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar Bruce Elfant as a defendant.

Photo by LoneStarMike – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link.

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