Federal judge shuts down Texas attorney general’s voter fraud investigation – Houston Public Media

A federal judge has ruled that parts of the Texas voter security law SB1 are unconstitutional, and Texas can no longer investigate voter assistance efforts as a criminal act.

In a 78-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez found that a key part of the Texas 2021 omnibus voter legislation is confusing, vague, overly broad, violates freedom of speech along with the 14th Amendment and there is no actual problem of illegal vote harvesting.

Under the provision, those who assist mail-in ballot voters in exchange for compensation could spend up to ten years in prison and could be fined up to $10,000.

“Witnesses were particularly uncertain about how to interpret the terms “physical presence” and “compensation” — neither of which is defined in the statute — and how the Canvassing Restriction impacts organizers’ ability to provide voting assistance during their in-person interactions with voters,” Rodriguez wrote.

Republican lawmakers have argued the provision is meant to prevent voter fraud.

Under the ruling, the Texas Attorney General’s office can no longer conduct investigations based on the provision.

The AG’s office cited it when it recently conducted a series of raids on the homes of Latino voting rights activists and a Democratic candidate for the Texas House.

The lawsuit brought by multiple Texas voting rights organizations asked for relief from several parts of SB1. But Saturday’s ruling only concerned the state’s attempt to block assistance with absentee ballots.

In a statement, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) praised the ruling — saying the state trying to intimidate Latino organizers and voters.

“For too long, certain politicians have used false claims to push abusive laws like this in campaigns of intimidation,” LULAC said on X. “Today’s decision blows a hole in those campaigns.”

Dr. Sergio Lira is the president of the Houston LULAC council. He said SB 1 has affected voter outreach.

“This really blocked the efforts to engage our community, and perhaps our most vulnerable community. First-time voters, the elderly, folks who have to fill out absentee ballots and things of that sort,” he said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement he plans to block the ruling and continue to investigate potential election violations.

“I will immediately move to block this unacceptable ruling so Texas can continue to defend its elections from bad actors seeking to undermine the ballot box,” he said. “A ruling—weeks prior to an election— preventing my office from investigating potential election violations is deeply troubling and risks undermining public trust in our political process.”

Members of LULAC were raided over alleged voter harvesting last month. Some of the people affected included Democratic candidate Cecilia Castellano who is running for Texas House District 80, which represents Uvalde and Laredo. She is also running against the former mayor of Uvalde.

Legal challenges continue to other provisions in the law restricting mail-in ballot voting and voter assistance.