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Texas Republicans Are Lying About Voter Fraud to Justify a Massive, Racist Voter Purge
By MARK JOSEPH STERN at Slate
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/texas-republicans-racist-illegal-voters-purge.html
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On Jan. 25, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted a VOTER FRAUD ALERT that quickly rocketed around the internet. Texas Secretary of State David Whitley, Paxton asserted, had discovered that approximately 95,000 individuals identified as non-citizens are registered to vote in the state, 58,000 of whom have voted in Texas elections. Whitley promptly urged counties to begin purging these 95,000 people from their voter rolls, demanding proof of citizenship within 30 days or canceling their registrations. Donald Trump joined the action, tweeting on Jan. 27 that Whitleys numbers are just the tip of iceberg. Voter fraud, Trump wrote, is rampant. Must be stopped. Strong voter ID!"
Within days of Paxtons alarming tweet, Whitley had substantially backtracked. The secretary of state quietly informed county officials that a significant number of people on the list are actually citizens. Texas Director of Elections Keith Ingram acknowledged that these were WEAK matches, a starting point rather than a definitive list. In Harris County alone, about 18,000 nameswere removed from the initial list of alleged non-citizens. Some county officials, however, had already begun to notify residents on that first list that they had 30 days to prove their citizenship or lose their ability to vote.
The situation in Texas is a mess. But it is a dangerous mess. Paxton, a notorious foe of voting rights, is creating chaos and confusion in order to justify a radical purge of Texas voter rolls. As three new lawsuits filed by an array of civil rights groups argue, this purge isnt just slapdash and sloppyits discriminatory and illegal. Paxton and his allies are taking a page from Kris Kobachs playbook of shock and awe: Toss out a wildly inflated claim of non-citizen voting, then use the ensuing panic to justify mass disenfranchisement. It is a dirty and duplicitous tactic. And thanks to Americas increasingly conservative judiciary, it might actually succeed.
Texas voter fraud pandemonium is actually a combination of Kobachs two favorite moves: creating dubious lists of allegedly fraudulent voters to disenfranchise, and forcing people to prove citizenship in order to cast a ballot. Whitleys purge list was created using a profoundly flawed method: His office identified individuals who presented documents indicating that they were not citizens when obtaining or renewing drivers licenses, using Department of Public Safety records dating back to 1996. It then cross-referenced this list with voter rolls to come up with the numbers Paxton quoted95,000 aliens registered to vote, 58,000 of whom have cast a ballot.
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Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Gothmog
(145,489 posts)dalton99a
(81,568 posts)The MALDEF lawsuit alleges that Texas actions violate the Equal Protection Clause, which generally prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin, as well as the Voting Rights Act, which bars laws that disproportionately burden ethnic minorities ability to vote. Both MALDEF and the League of United Latin American Citizens, which filed a similar lawsuit, also allege that Paxton and Whitley are engaging in illegal voter intimidation in violation of the VRA. A third lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Dēmos, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Texas Civil Rights Project raises VRA and equal protection claims as well. It argues that Texas is placing an undue burden on naturalized citizens constitutional right to vote and infringing on their due process rights. And it asserts that Texas is engaging in intentional racial discrimination in violation of the 14th and 15th amendments. All three lawsuits were brought on behalf of Texas voters targeted by Whitleys list.
These are powerful arguments backed by substantial evidence of official malfeasance. But the Supreme Court, bolstered by Trumps judicial nominees, have mastered the art of waving away proof of racism to uphold voter suppression laws. (Plus, the court already gutted the Voting Rights Act, whose now-defunct pre-clearance provision couldve halted a voter purge like this one.) Just last June, the Supreme Courts conservative majority ignored the obvious discrimination behind Texas racial gerrymander, writing that courts must presume the good faith of legislatures. Paxton and Whitleys attack on minority voters is about as blatant as racist disenfranchisement can get in 2019. But theres a depressingly good chance that our Trump-packed courts will pretend to see no evil.