Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued one of the state’s most populous counties on Wednesday, asking a court to block its plan to send unincorporated county residents voter registration forms, a court document shows.
Bexar County does not have the authority to send out unsolicited registration applications, which county officials are sending to eligible but unregistered voters, according to the lawsuit.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
In the 2020 election, Democratic President Joe Biden carried the county, while former Republican President Donald Trump carried the entire state. Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Biden won Bexar County, the state’s fourth-most populous county and home to San Antonio, by 18 points, according to the Texas Tribune. Overall, Trump carried the state with 52.1% of the vote compared to Biden’s 46.5%, the paper added.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, are locked in a tight race for the presidency, with less than two months to go until the Nov. 5 election.
KEY QUOTES
The county’s actions exceed its “statutory authority,” the lawsuit says.
In his statements in recent days, Paxton has sought to portray the voter registration plan as a way to register non-citizens to vote. Supporters of the plan deny this claim and say the step is simply intended to increase voter turnout.
“We have people who just need to register. We don’t tell them who to vote for,” County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who has presented the idea to local leaders, told The Washington Post.
