A federal district court judge has blocked an effort by the Texas Secretary of State to purge voter rolls of non-citizens. The lawsuit was filed in objection to a recent program in which driver license records were matched against voter registration records in order to locate ineligible voters. In his opinion, Judge Fred Biery of the US District Court of the Western District of Texas noted the program, “was inherently paved with flawed results” and that it appeared to be “a solution looking for a problem.” As a result of the initiative, the Texas Secretary of State, David Whitley, questioned the status of over 95,000 registered voters, claiming that they were ineligible to vote. Those protesting the move to purge these voters from the voting rolls, noted that many of those involved were naturalized citizens who had applied for a drivers licenses or state ID s when they were legal permanent citizens but had subsequently become full citizens before renewing their driving licenses or IDs.
More Resources
Texas League of United Latin American Citizens, et al. v. Whitley, et al., Order filed February 27, 2019.
Federal Judge Orders Texas To End ‘Flawed’ Effort To ID Noncitizen Voters, National Public Radio, February 27, 2019.
Inaccurate claims of noncitizen voting in Texas reflect a growing trend in Republican states, Washington Post, February 6, 2019.
