There is an immediate danger of election interference from foreign nationals. Non-citizens are registered to vote and are voting in Texas. Over 6,500 have been removed from the voter rolls since 2021, but those are just the ones who self-identified at DPS or in the jury pool. There are 100 times that amount currently on the voter rolls whose citizenship status cannot be verified by the state.
September 18th, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson stating:
“Although it is a crime for a non-citizen to register to vote, federal law restricts states from requiring proof of citizenship, and state agencies like those we lead have limited means to verify voter citizenship in many cases. But those same laws place obligations on the federal government to help us identify potential non-citizen voters. And the Office of the Secretary of State possesses the legal authority to demand the federal government do its job in helping states maintain the integrity of their voter rolls.”
He continued the letter by urging her to demand the federal government to assist in securing the Texas voter rolls. Secretary Nelson responded by sending a letter to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asking for assistance “verifying or ascertaining the citizenship or immigration status of certain individuals on the State of Texas’s voter rolls.” She stopped short of sending the list of individuals in question.
The deadline Secretary Nelson’s office set for USCIS to respond has expired and no further action has been taken by either party. With Early Voting in person beginning in just over two weeks, Attorney General Paxton has once again reached out to Secretary Nelson. This time he wants her office to send the list of voters in question to his office. If she won’t send it to the federal government for citizenship verification, he will.
“There is no time for delay. Texans cannot afford to lose another second waiting for their vote and their voice to be protected from illegal ballots,” said Attorney General Paxton. Strong data matches from the federal government would allow Texas voter registrars to immediately remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.
Any illegal vote cast silences an eligible citizen. We must ensure the accuracy of our voter rolls and time is running out. Early voting in person begins on October 21st. Mail-in ballots are about to arrive in mailboxes.
Advancing Integrity is committed to ensuring that only citizens vote. To learn more about our efforts and how you can help, click HERE.