Travis County leaders file federal complaint against Paxton over voter registration lawsuit

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Travis County leaders filed on Tuesday a federal complaint against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, arguing his lawsuit attempted to violate the National Voter Registration Act and suppress voter registration efforts.

Earlier this month, Paxton filed the lawsuit over the Travis County Commissioners Court’s Aug. 27 decision to contract with Civic Government Solutions (CGS) – a company that uses a subscription model to provide access to a “proprietary database” of potentially unregistered voters. With that database, Travis County leaders planned to send out voter registration cards to eligible voters.

“The National Voter Registration Act, among other things, made it a duty of local government to take affirmative acts, to locate and register eligible voters and mail voter registration applications," said Travis County Judge Andy Brown at a press conference.

"That's exactly what Travis County did, and the Attorney General of Texas didn't like it,” he continued.

Paxton’s lawsuit filed on Sept. 6 said that Travis County officials hired CGS, which Paxton said is partisan. Paxton said in his lawsuit the company is, “[interested] in getting people to vote for progressive candidates.” 

“Travis County has blatantly violated Texas law by paying partisan actors to conduct unlawful identification efforts to track down people who are not registered to vote,” Paxton said in a press release. “Programs like this invite fraud and reduce public trust in our elections. We will stop them and any other county considering such programs.”

Paxton’s lawsuit named four members of the Travis County Commissioner’s Court, Travis County Andy Brown and Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant. Civic Government Solutions was omitted from the lawsuit. 

At the press conference, Travis County Attorney Delia Garza said the county filed several pleadings in response to Paxton's lawsuit, including the federal complaint, an overturning of the injunction, and a notice to transfer the lawsuit from state to federal court.

“In Texas, in this country, we still value the things that are foundational to us -- things like voting, things like registering to vote, things like making sure people have a voice in their government,” Garza said.

Travis County Tax Assessor and Voter Registrar, Bruce Elfant, said Texas ranks “29th among states in voter registration and 34th in turnout,” and is lacking in advancements to change that. Texas is still one of only eight states that does not allow online voter registration.

Travis County leaders said the federal court will decide on whether to hold a hearing at a later date.

“Counties have a duty to register eligible Texans to vote and should do everything they can to lower barriers and help people engage in this democratic process, which is exactly what we are doing while Ken Paxton works to undermine trust in our democratic process," Brown said. "Travis County will fight to preserve the right to vote."

The deadline to register to vote in the upcoming November election in Travis County is October 7th.

Cora Neas and Anthony Torres contributed to this story.