Judge halts Texas voter-roll purge

Ruling cites scant evidence of fraud

A federal judge has halted an effort to purge voter rolls in Texas, saying that the secretary of state there had created a “mess” in questioning the citizenship of nearly 100,000 voters, few of whom have been confirmed as ineligible to vote.

David Whitley, the secretary of state, began a “good faith effort” last year to identify noncitizens on the voter rolls, according to the judge, Fred Biery, of U.S. District Court in San Antonio. But what followed, the judge said, was plagued by missteps.

“Notwithstanding good intentions, the road to a solution was inherently paved with flawed results, meaning perfectly legal naturalized Americans were burdened with what the court finds to be ham-handed and

threatening correspondence from the state,” Biery said in a ruling Wednesday.

Despite alarms repeatedly raised by Republicans like Whitley, academic and government studies carried out over years have repeatedly found scant evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In January, after an 11-month investigation, Whitley’s office shared a list of suspected noncitizens on the voter rolls with election officials throughout the state.

Of the nearly 100,000 registered voters whose citizenship Whitley’s office called into question, only about 80 have been deemed to be ineligible to vote, Biery said.

“The evidence has shown in a hearing before this court that there is no widespread voter fraud,” he said. “The challenge is how to ferret the infinitesimal needles out of the haystack of 15 million Texas voters.”

In his ruling, Biery said none of the individuals on the list could be removed from the voter rolls without court authorization.

The list was called into question within days of its release: Almost immediately, Whitley’s office had what Biery described as an “oops moment” upon realizing that 25,000 of the names were incorrectly included.

Nearly 30,000 names, the largest batch from the list, were passed on to Harris County, which is home to Houston. Election officials there quickly eliminated several hundred duplicates. Then, the state advised them that they could pare the list back drastically.

In the end, Harris County officials were left with fewer than 12,000 names. An audit

of 150 names chosen at random yielded no noncitizens, so officials there declined to take further action.

“We decided, at least last week, that we did not consider any of this to be reliable information,” said Douglas Ray, special assistant attorney for Harris County.

When the list was unveiled, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who has zealously prosecuted voter fraud, said his office would “spare no effort” in helping to investigate and prosecute cases stemming from it.

In a statement responding to the ruling, Paxton argued that Biery was “improperly assuming control” over the state’s efforts to maintain the integrity of its voter rolls and said his office was weighing its options.

The lawsuit before Biery was first brought by two advocacy groups, the Texas League of United Latin American Citizens and the National League of United Latin American Citizens, in late January. Last week, similar suits filed by other local groups were consolidated under that case.

In a statement, Domingo Garcia, president of the National League of United Latin American Citizens, said the ruling confirmed that the actions undertaken by the offices of Whitley and Paxton were “part of a deliberate voter suppression plan and will not be tolerated.”

Sam Taylor, communications director for Whitley, said in a statement that the office appreciated Biery’s acknowledgment that it had been acting in good faith.

“At this time, we are preparing a communication to Texas counties,” he said. “Secretary Whitley met personally with representatives of the plaintiffs on Wednesday, solicited their feedback, and made clear that every option is on the table.”