This article has been updated since publication to reflect the outcome of the Bexar County Commissioners Court meeting.
Attorney General Ken Paxton warned the Bexar and Harris County Commissioners Courts that he will sue them should they fund a third-party organization “targeting” voter registrations.
The warning came Monday evening as the Bexar County Commissioners Court prepared to discuss awarding a $392,700 purchase order to Civic Government Solutions, LLC (CGS) “to print and mail State Voter Registration Forms, with postage-paid return envelopes, to unregistered voters in locations based on targeting agreed to by the County” on Tuesday.
CGS is a front group for Civitech, a heavily partisan Democrat voter registration organization. Civitech’s blog outlines CGS’ true aims: “targeting” eligible but unregistered voters who will vote Democrat in the general election.
Despite CGS Founder and CEO Jeremy Smith’s repeated media claims that his organization is nonpartisan, CGS and Civitech share an Austin address, their officers share the same titles, and a web domain lookup of CGS shows Civitech as the registrant, indicating direct control over CGS.
CGS’ homepage mentions that its team has registered voters and sent mailers since 2018. Yet CGS officially formed on July 15, 2020. Although CGS’ website draws attention to its successful 2020 general election registration efforts, Civitech built its database in 2018 with the Pipeline Fund’s support, in collaboration with Catalist and BallotReady, all Democrat-focused voter databases. This anachronism further indicates Civitech’s direct involvement with CGS’ efforts.
Since then, CGS received $48,000 in June from Travis County “to assist with a pilot for voter outreach services” with another $500,000 earmarked. CGS claims to be in talks with Dallas County and is poised to secure nearly one million dollars from Harris and Bexar County.
In comparison, the state of Texas only spent $1.5 million to join ERIC in 2020.
Citing his 2020 Texas Supreme Court victory over Harris County in the letters, Paxton stated that both counties lack the authority to print and mail voter registration applications.
“It is unlawful and reckless for counties to use taxpayer dollars to indiscriminately send voter registration forms with no consideration of the recipients’ eligibility and without any statutory authority to do so,” said Paxton. “These counties’ attempts to do so after the Biden-Harris Administration has allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter the country are especially troubling.”
Both letters concluded, “It is more important than ever that we maintain the integrity of our voter rolls and ensure only eligible voters decide our elections. Your proposal does the opposite by indiscriminately inviting county residents to register to vote regardless of their eligibility. I urge you to abandon this proposal. If you do not, I will see you in court.”
Despite Paxton’s letters to Harris and Bexar counties, the Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1-1 Tuesday to approve the purchase order for CGS’ targeted voter registration.
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