Austin's Travis County — a longtime blue stronghold — has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas AG Ken Paxton and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson over the state's efforts to block municipal voter-registration efforts before the November election.
The legal filing comes as Paxton, a vocal ally of former President Donald Trump, has pursued lawsuits in state courts to block counties from sending voter-registration cards to people flagged as eligible but unregistered voters.
Paxton has accused both Travis and Bexar counties of violating state law by mailing registration cards. Early this week, a state district court judge ruled that Paxton's Bexar County claim was moot since officials already conducted the mailing. He's since said he plans to appeal the ruling.
In its suit against Paxton, Travis County argues the AG is violating the federal Voting Rights Act by trying to block local officials from carrying out their duties to promote people's participation in elections. The suit alleges that Nelson has done nothing to stop Paxton from breaking federal law.
Paxton has repeatedly parroted Trump's discredited assertions that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud and that Democrats have deliberately allowed asylum seekers into the country so they can be added to the voter rolls.
The AG also drew recent outrage from Latino groups and Democratic lawmakers by carrying out raids on South Texas Democratic organizers as part of a two-year-old "election integrity" investigation. He also opened an investigation into alleged voter fraud in North Texas after a Fox News host tweeted an unsubstantiated claim that groups there were registering noncitizens to vote.
In a separate federal lawsuit filed last week, Jolt — a nonprofit focused on increasing Latinos’ civic participation — accused Paxton of seeking to damage the organization and its associates by using his voter-fraud investigations to expose its workers to public threats.
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