The Purge: Texas Republicans Have a Lengthy History of Erroneous Voter Fraud Claims
Since Texas Secretary of State David Whitley issued an advisory on January 25 claiming more than 95,000 non-citizens may be registered to vote in Texas, that number appears to be dwindling by the day.
Election officials in Collin, Fort Bend, Harris, Travis and Williamson Counties received calls from Whitley’s office informing them many of the flagged voters shouldn’t have been on the list, according to the Texas Tribune. In McLennan County, all 366 flagged voters were determined to be citizens. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram estimates that, as of February 1, the list may have already shrunk by 20,000 names.
For Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the democracy program at NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, the backpedaling is just the latest example in a long history of targeted voter suppression in the Lone Star State.
“We totally saw this coming,” said Pérez, a San Antonio native. “We have seen before these ridiculous, over-the-top claims of non-citizens on the rolls, and when the smoke clears and the dust settles, they always have to walk it back.”
Texas lawmakers cited voter fraud when they implemented the state’s controversial 2011 voter ID law, which required voters to present approved photo identification at polling places. However, when pressed to present proof of rampant wrongdoing, the state has repeatedly failed to do so.
“It’s always been alleged, but it’s never been proved,” said Albert Kauffman, a law professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. “I know Texas took a great deal of support for the fact that, in Indiana, they passed a voter ID bill which was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. But [the court] approved it based on the importance of the franchise, and they agreed in their opinion that there is no proof that people were illegally voting and that [a voter ID law] would somehow cure it.”
https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2019/02/15/the-purge-texas-republicans-have-a-lengthy-history-of-erroneous-voter-fraud-claims