Texas Secretary of State John B. Scott’s office has identified more than 11,000 voters who might be noncitizens in a so-called voter purge program, with nearly 1,200 Dallas County residents removed from the rolls.
AUSTIN — A group of civil rights organizations has sued the Texas secretary of state’s office for refusing to turn over documents related to a so-called voter purge program that has already canceled the voter registrations of nearly 1,200 Dallas County residents.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund are the lead plaintiffs in the suit against Secretary of State John B. Scott. The suit alleges that Scott violated the National Voter Registration Act by not providing information about the latest effort to purge noncitizens from voting rolls. The program has identified 11,197 registered voters as potential noncitizens.
The Dallas Morning News has also requested information under the Texas Public Information Act about the program and the individuals identified by Scott’s office. The office has indicated those records are protected from disclosure to the public and has asked the Texas Attorney General’s office to decide whether they can be withheld.
The secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the suit, 2,327 voters have had their registration canceled under the program, of which 278 were confirmed as non-U.S. citizens.
The latest effort to uncover noncitizen voters in Texas was ordered under new voting laws approved by the Texas Legislature in 2021. It is another attempt after a similar program fell flat in 2019 after it was found that the office was relying on records that were not up to date and would have canceled the voter registrations of many Texans who registered to vote after becoming naturalized citizens.
It was found that nearly 60,000 legal Texas voters could have had their voter registration canceled under the program. The fallout led to the
resignation of then-Secretary of State David Whitley and triggered a lawsuit from several of the organizations involved in this latest suit.
Under a
a settlement agreement, the secretary of state’s office was forced to notify the ACLU and MALDEF of the creation of the new program. Those organizations requested information about the programs in August, citing in their request a provision of the National Voting Registration Act that requires states to disclose “records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters.”
They were later notified that the secretary of state’s office was treating their request as one made under the Texas Public Information Act and that they were seeking to withhold the information under Texas’ local government code.
They are asking the court to declare Scott’s office in violation of the National Voting Registration Act and to provide the requested documents related to the noncitizen voter purge program.
The suit is the latest of several that have been filed against the state and Texas agencies related to elections. The Department of Justice is seeking to have Texas’ recently implemented voting law Senate Bill 1 overturned over allegations that it targets minority voters and discriminates against the disabled.
The League of Women Voters of Texas has also threatened legal action against the Scott’s office for not providing the organization voter registration forms that are customarily provided to the organization for voter registration efforts at naturalization ceremonies.
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