LULAC Sues Texas Secretary Of State, AG Over 'Attempts To Suppress Latino Voters'
DALLAS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - LULAC filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday against David Whitley, Texas Secretary of State and Ken Paxton, Attorney General regarding continued attempts by the State of Texas to suppress Latino voters.
"It's clear that the right-wing elements in Texas government are trying to rig the system to keep power and disenfranchise 95,000 American citizens," says Domingo Garcia, National President. "There is no voter fraud in Texas, it's a lie, repeated time and again to suppress minority voters and we're going to fight hard against it."
State officials announced last Friday that 95,000 alleged potential non-citizens had been discovered on Texas polls going back to 1996.
LULAC alleges in its lawsuit that this is voter intimidation and voter suppression of primarily Latino voters.
Every year, more than 50,000 Texans are naturalized and become U.S. citizens. The new voters usually vote at 90 percent levels, LULAC said in a news release.
"We look forward to appearing in court to defend Texas' right to limit the state's voting registration rolls to those actually eligible to vote," Texas Attorney General's Office spokesperson Marc Rylander said in a statement.
LULAC says most if not all of the people flagged as non-citizens actually registered to vote at naturalizations ceremonies and are citizens.
"And now you get a letter in the mail from a government official saying are you an illegal voter? Did you cast an illegal vote? You have to come back and show us proof and by the way, this might have a third degree felony...if you lie. That has a chilling effect," said Garcia.
In Dallas County, the elections department was told by that state that some 10,000 non-citizens voted and need to be purged from the rolls.
The Dallas County Election Department tells CBS 11 the state has now come and told them not to take action while it verifies some information.
"We don't do anything to knock U.S. citizens who are registered to vote off the voting rolls," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
If the state get its way, the voter flagged will get a letter from the county they're registered in, telling them their citizenship is under review.
Those voters should been given 30 days to prove citizenship or be purged from voter rolls.