Texas appealing dismissal of Bexar County lawsuit challenging unsolicited voter registration program

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — Monday’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging Bexar County’s unsolicited voter registration program is now being challenged by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a Tuesday release, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) says the lawsuit was dismissed based on the idea that the applications had already been mailed out and while the legality of a contract signed with Civic Government Solutions to oversee the effort was still up in the air.

“In a display of bad faith, Bexar County engaged in dirty tricks to avoid appropriate judicial review of a clearly unlawful program that invites voter fraud,” said Attorney General Paxton. “These actions demonstrate that Bexar County knew what they were doing was wrong, yet expedited the mailout of unsolicited registration forms before the issue could be argued in court. I will fight every step of the way to hold them accountable.”

The OAG says thousands of voter registration applications were sent out to unverified recipients in selected parts of Bexar County.

On September 2, Attorney General Paxton warned the Bexar County Commissioners Court that its proposed plan to employ a third-party vendor to mail voter registration forms to individuals regardless of the eligibility of the recipients would violate the law. Nevertheless, Bexar County approved the program the next day over the objection of its own voter registrar.

Attorney General Paxton immediately sued and the OAG attempted to schedule a hearing on a motion for a temporary restraining order with Bexar County attorneys. Bexar County claimed that it needed more time to prepare for litigation and agreed to a consolidated preliminary hearing on September 16.

However, on the Friday before the rescheduled hearing Bexar County filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The OAG says the county revealed that it had been acting in secret to expedite the mass mailouts. Because the unsolicited voter registration forms had already been distributed to residents regardless of the legality of the contract or the eligibility of the recipients, the judge dismissed the State’s motion as moot.

The Office of the Attorney General is appealing this ruling and will continue seeking appropriate remedies.

You can read the court filing by clicking here.