Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the Homeland Security Department on Monday to verify the citizenship status of more than 450,000 names on the state’s voter rolls, saying that while the vast majority are likely eligible to vote, he wants to weed out those who aren’t.
The demand is the latest in a renewed effort by GOP-led states to try to clean their voter rolls amid the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration.
Mr. Paxton said federal law requires the national government to help states verify citizenship and he’s asking the Biden administration to make good on that.
“I am confident that you will continue to comply with your legal obligations and provide the requested citizenship or immigration status to my office so that I may ensure Texas elections are fair and secure,” Mr. Paxton wrote in a letter to Ur Jaddou, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Texas says it already verifies citizenship status for people who obtain state driver’s licenses or identity cards, so anyone who used that to register to vote is in the clear.
But he said 454,289 names on the state’s voter rolls registered with other documents, therefore the state cannot be sure of their citizenship status.
“Although I have no doubt the vast majority of the voters on the list are citizens who are eligible to vote, I am equally certain that Texans have no way of knowing whether or not any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote,” Mr. Paxton wrote.
The Washington Times has sought comment from USCIS.
Texas recently revealed it removed 6,500 people from its voter rolls that it deemed ineligible noncitizens. Of those, the state said 1,830 had cast ballots in previous elections.
Republicans have been focusing on noncitizen voting in elections as part of a broader push questioning the integrity of U.S. balloting.
Democrats say the concerns are overblown, insisting that noncitizen voting happens rarely enough to not be worthy of concern, particularly when the steps taken to weed out noncitizen voters could end up snaring eligible citizens, too.
The Justice Department has warned states to be cautious in any attempt to clean voter rolls at this point.
Last week, the department filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s decision to place 3,251 names on its inactive voter list, saying the move took place too close to an election.
As part of its complaint, the Justice Department said some of the names removed from Alabama’s rolls included citizens.
Alabama said the names had shown up in state databases for people applying for unemployment benefits or a driver’s license or identity card and had indicators showing they weren’t citizens.
Secretary of State Wes Allen said it’s “possible” some were citizens now. Indeed, as of the middle of September, more than 700 people had verified their citizenship and returned to the active voter rolls.
Just 106 people who got the notices asked that their names be removed — and even then, that wasn’t a firm indicator that they were noncitizens.
Mr. Allen said he made “repeated requests” to the federal government for a list of noncitizens living in Alabama to use in checking voter lists, but the administration “declined” those entreaties.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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