By Chris Moore

chris.moore@panews.com

 

Jefferson County will investigate fewer than 300 names the state sent that were flagged for potential voter fraud, County Tax Assessor-Collector Allison Getz said. The number could be far fewer after the review, she said.

Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent out a tweet, which started with the word “VOTER FRAUD ALERT.” The tweet said Texas Secretary of State David Whitley “discovered (approximately) 95,000 individuals identified by state Department of Public Safety as non-U.S. citizens have a matching voter registration record in TX, (approximately) 58,000 of whom have voted in TX elections.”

According to a release by the Texas Secretary of State’s office, the agency collected names of 95,000 individuals who are registered to vote, who reported to DPS at some point, they were not legal citizens between the years 1996 and 2018. Of the 95,000 individuals, the agency found 58,000 have voted in elections over the 22-year span. It is unclear if those named became naturalized citizens after their initial reporting to the DPS.

Paxton’s tweet was shared nearly 35,000 times, while the claim itself was tweeted by President Donald Trump, who tweeted “58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas, with 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. All over the country, especially in California, voter fraud is rampant. Must be stopped. Strong voter ID! @foxandfriends.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also retweeted Paxton along with “Thanks to Attorney General Paxton and the Secretary of State for uncovering and investigating this illegal vote registration. I support prosecution where appropriate. The State will work on legislation to safeguard against these illegal practices.”

Getz said she received a call from the Secretary of State’s office Tuesday. Getz said some of the names on the list do not require an investigation, but she did not know how many Friday.

“They gave us the information and explained what was going on,” Getz said. “We have over 144,000 registered voters. The list we got from the state was less than 300 people. It’s a very, very small number. There is a code that is associated with some of these names. If the code is on there, that means those people have already been vetted through the (DPS) system. We will do nothing on those people.”

Getz said if there are any names that do not have the code, the county will send out correspondence asking them to send a citizenship verification. The individual will have 30 days to respond or they can be taken off the voter roll.