Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

 

UPDATE: The ruling to which Lervisit and Crandall based their complain was issued last month by Travis County District Judge Tim Sulak, who ruled that word “disability” as used in the Texas law on voting by mail is vague enough include reasonable fears of getting COVID-19. Sulak’s ruling has been automatically stayed while the ruling is appealed to the Court of Appeals for the 14th Judicial District in Houston.

Today, Paxton issued an email announcing that he has filed a brief with the appellate court “defending the Texas Election Code requirements for submitting a mail-in ballot.” The brief claims that Sulak’s ruling “misconstru[es] the Election Code to allow anyone to vote by mail using specific protections intended to aid only those with true disabilities.”

Paxton said, “The integrity of our election process must be maintained, and the law established by our Legislature must be followed consistently. Unlawful expansion of mail-in voting, which is a special protection made available to Texans with actual disabilities, will only serve to undermine the security of our elections and to facilitate fraud.

“Fear of contracting COVID-19 does not amount to a sickness or physical condition as required by state law,” he added. “My office will continue to defend Texas’s election laws to ensure that our elections remain free, fair and safe.”

Traditionally, Democrats fight for greater access to voting for all qualified voters, while Republicans fight against measures that would make it easier for more people to vote. In fact, President Trump himself has said that allowing more qualified voters to cast their ballots would mean that fewer Republican candidates would win election.

During an appearance March 30 on Fox & Friends, while dismissing Democratic efforts on election reform that include expanding voting by mail, Trump said, “They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

Other Republicans, including the Speaker of the House in Georgia and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, have also said that making voting easier would be bad for Republicans.

ORIGINAL: Voting rights advocate Woot Lervisit and Texas State Democratic Executive Committee member and former Texas Senate candidate Kendall Scudder filed a complaint against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today (Monday, May 11) with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, accusing Paxton of “254 counts of felony elections fraud.”

The two claim that Paxton “knowingly misrepresented Texas law on who is eligible for ballot by mail in a letter to Texas elections administrators on May 1.”

In the letter, Paxton told  Texas elections officials in all 254 counties in the state that “fear of contracting COVID-19 unaccompanied by a qualifying sickness or physical condition does not constitute a disability under the Texas Election Code for purposes of receiving a ballot by mail.” That statement, Lervisit and Scudder say, “intentionally contradicts a ruling by Texas State Judge Tim Sulak last month.”

In the state court opinion, Sulak found that under Texas law, “any voters without established immunity meet the plain language definition of disability thereby entitling them to a mailed ballot under Tex. Elec. Code 82.002.” In a May 1 tweet announcing the letter sent to county officials, Paxton said, “Mail ballots based on disability are specifically reserved for those who are legitimately ill and cannot vote in-person without assistance or jeopardizing their health. My office will continue to defend the integrity of Texas’s election laws.”

In a statement announcing the complaint, Lervisit said, “Ken Paxton’s actions are a felony crime under TEC 276.013 – ‘A person commits an offense if the person knowingly or intentionally [made an] effort to … cause [an] intentionally misleading statement, representation, or information to be provided … to an election official,’ and [Paxton] should pay the price for intentionally misleading Texas election officials and voters.”
He continued, “Any Texan who is susceptible to catching the COVID19 virus is entitled to vote by mail in Texas. Period.”

Scudder added that Paxton’s letter “intentionally misled Texas elections officials about eligibility to vote by mail. When he intentionally lied to 254 election officials by saying that the COVID-19 pandemic does not permit eligibility for ballot by mail, he committed 254 counts of federal elections fraud.

“Mail-in ballots aren’t where the election fraud is happening, it’s happening in the office of our indicted attorney general,” Scudder said.

Lervisit, a Dallas attorney, is the CEO of Our Ballot Institute, a non-partisan non-profit organization created during the COVID-19 pandemic to promote voter participation and educate Americans about voting, according to the emailed statement announcing the complaint.

Scudder is a Dallas small business owner and host of the podcast Pod Bless Texas. He was a nominee for the Texas State Senate in District 2 in 2018.

According to TEC 273.001, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot is required to investigate Paxton once the complaint was filed this morning. Scudder said, “While the attorney general may feel that he is above the law, Mr. Lervisit and I believe that [Dallas County] District Attorney [John] Creuzot will see things differently. We demand that justice be served to Mr. Paxton who repeatedly breaks Texas law without consequence.”

Election Day for the 2020 Primary Run-off election in Texas is set for July 14 after being rescheduled by Gov. Greg Abbott in April due to the COVID-19 crisis.

— Tammye Nash