On Monday, Paxton issued a letter to the Commissioners Court threatening legal action if the county approved a contract to hire an outside firm to distribute voter-registration forms and postage-paid return envelopes to unregistered voters. Paxton, a Republican, argued that felons, non-citizens and others ineligible to cast ballots were likely to end up with the forms and break the law by submitting them.
Despite that threat, the Democrat-dominated Commissioners Court voted 3-1 on Tuesday to let Civic Government Solutions to mail 200,000 registration packets. Supporters of the plan, including County Judge Peter Sakai, said it would make it easier for residents to participate in the democratic process.
During Tuesday's three-hour court meeting, Larry Roberson, chief of the civil division of the Bexar County District Attorney’s office, told commissioners that past case law showed counties have legal authority to distribute registration forms. He dismissed Paxton's claims to the contrary as "misleading at best."
Even so, Paxton moved ahead with a suit, filing a petition against the court's five members and Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen in Bexar County District Court.
“Despite being warned against adopting this blatantly illegal program that would spend taxpayer dollars to mail registration applications to potentially ineligible voters, Bexar County has irresponsibly chosen to violate the law,” Paxton said in a press statement. “This program is completely unlawful and potentially invites election fraud."
The legal filing comes as Paxton doubles down on claims that his office is aggressively working to uphold "election integrity" with a series of controversial investigations. The AG is a vocal ally of Donald Trump and has repeatedly echoed the former president's debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Last month, Paxton's office approved a raid targeting South Texas Latinx Democratic organizers as part of a probe into election-fraud claims. Democratic lawmakers and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) have blasted the move as voter intimidation and asked the Justice Department to investigate.
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