Hearing held Monday in Paxton’s lawsuit against Bexar County over voter registration form mailouts

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas — A Bexar County judge heard the state of Texas’ case for a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit against Bexar County over voter registration forms.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Bexar County to block an effort to register more voters before the November election. This came after Bexar County commissioners approved a contract with a non-partisan company to send forms by mail to residents of the county.

Monday, a temporary restraining order intended to prevent the county from mailing the forms was denied by the judge. Bexar County officials say they already sent them to resident last Tuesday. 

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said he decided to implement the voter registration program because voter turnout has been low in the area he oversees, which includes underserved areas.

“I want to make it clear that this effort is not touching the voting ballot. We’re not touching the election process. All we want to do is register voters,” he said. Sakai said he is ready to defend the county’s position on the voter registration program adding “we are on legal ground.”

Paxton’s office has argued that sending forms by mail to those who have not requested them could result in people registering to vote who are not eligible. The state said in Monday’s hearing they wanted confirmation that no additional forms would be sent.

So far, about 210,000 forms were sent to newly-identified residents and Bexar County said they no further plans to send out additional voter registration forms. 

There is still no ruling on the lawsuit filed by Ken Paxton and the next steps in the lawsuit are not clear.

Meanwhile, Friday, Paxton’s office issued “an advisory” against people and organizations from handing out or mailing out voter registration forms that were not specifically requested.

“There is no issue more important to our political system than election security,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Receiving a voter registration application does not necessarily mean you are eligible to vote. If you are ineligible and attempt to register anyway, you are committing a crime.”

The deadline to register to vote in the state of Texas is October 7.