After a shocking report from the Texas Secretary of State last week revealed 95,000 individuals identified in the Texas Department of Public Safety database as non-U.S. citizens have registered to vote in Texas — and 58,000 of those have voted in one or more Texas election since 1996 — Democrat lawmakers and liberal media rushed to downplay the revelation.
The chairman of the Texas House Democrat Caucus, Chris Turner (Grand Prairie), mocked the revelation on Twitter, marking up a tweet from President Donald Trump which mentioned the report, and declaring the entire allegation “false.”
I annotated @realDonaldTrump’s tweet for accuracy. You’re welcome. #txlege pic.twitter.com/91Hysop9mz
— Chris Turner (@ChrisGTurner) January 27, 2019
Liberal State Rep. Rafael Anchia (D–Dallas) ran out and immediately called the accusations “baseless.”
Even the lobby-funded Texas Tribune wasted no time in taking to Twitter to downplay the revelations.
While media organizations are correct that it is possible that some of the 58,000 individuals have since become citizens, as revised numbers indicate, Texans shouldn’t presume or simply hope they have. And efforts should absolutely be taken to ensure the integrity of the voter rolls.
As the Secretary of State cautioned counties to check the flagged voters against their own records, the Fort Worth Star Telegram ran the headline “Nearly 20 percent of Tarrant voters flagged for citizenship scrutiny didn’t belong on list.”
Implying that 80% may have, but that, of course, doesn’t fit the left’s narrative.
And to top it off, just days later a liberal group is suing to stop integrity efforts.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the left-leaning League of United Latin-American Citizens (LULAC) takes aim at Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State David Whitley, alleging their news release amounted to “voter suppression.”
“These two Texas officials have carefully crafted and orchestrated a program that combines an election advisory ostensibly directed at ensuring that all those registered to vote in the May election are citizens eligible to vote with the use of data that is suspect on its face and a blackout on public access to the data,” they wrote in their complaint.
The reaction from Democrats and the liberal media naturally raises questions about why they are so quick to discount and dismiss the report. As Derek Ryan, an election data specialist, pointed out online, with elections in recent years coming as close as twelve votes apart between the winner and loser, any amount of voter fraud should concern Texans.
I’ve seen the argument that 58,000 possible illegal votes over the span of 20 years isn’t all that much. Here are just a few of the close races in Texas from the past three election cycles. #txlege pic.twitter.com/gwmJXemvVe
— Derek Ryan (@longhornderek) January 27, 2019
Especially when no one is verifying voters’ citizenship.
