Joe Jaworski
| Austin American-Statesman
Texas law requires eligible voters to register no later than 30 days before an election. In our busy lives, too many fail to register or maintain their registration. Texas is often criticized among the fifty states for being an unnecessarily difficult place to vote. Registration hurdles contribute to our state’s bad reputation.
Texas’ population is over 31 million and growing, introducing newly eligible voters each election cycle. Students turning age 18, eligible voters relocating from other states and transient, previously registered Texans occupy county officials tasked by state law with maintaining our voter rolls.
So, it’s good to see Texas counties making it easier for Americans to register to vote.
Bexar and Travis counties recently identified eligible voters with proven voting history who are unregistered to vote. As a convenience and civic encouragement for these potential voters, county officials will mail voter registration applications to enfranchise these citizens. Good for them.
As counties excel in delivering good government, the Texas GOP thrives on waging election wars, and Ken Paxton, our notorious state Attorney General, cannot let a blue county convenience go unaddressed.
In a masterpiece of vexatious litigation reminiscent of his embarrassing, instantly-rejected 2020 election challenge, Paxton sued Bexar county and Travis county last week for making it easier to register to vote.
Texas judges will rule quickly, given the fast-approaching October 7 registration deadline, and we would all be excused for moving on, entrusting the courts to address these matters for us.
But please consider something first. Ken Paxton filed these lawsuits not to promote the “rule of law” or to “protect the integrity of our elections.” Instead, he’s arrogantly harassing counties he perceives as “Democrat.” Paxton wants to suppress their vote counts like he did in 2020 when, as he has bragged to conservative media, he “delivered” Texas for Trump. That’s too bad because the registration applications the counties want to send are being mailed to Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Everyone loses if Paxton gets his way.
Texans should be angry about Paxton’s out-of-control abuse of office and partisan favoritism. Paxton has plenty to do already, collecting child support, approving municipal bonds, issuing legal opinions and signing open records decisions – his enumerated job duties for which he and his staff are funded generously for their work each biennium. But Paxton is focused on politics, not the duties of his office.
Paxton engages in frivolous litigation as a voter suppression technique, and this is an abuse of office. He’s an elected politician; he wants the GOP to win and Democrats to lose. But his duties of office endure and preempt campaign trickery because, for now anyway, he is the constitutional Texas Attorney General, not some nefarious Mr. Moneybags in a 3-D political board game which he plays for arcane pleasure. As we’ve seen for many years now, he’s not doing his job.
Texans works hard, and we do it for our families, alongside our friends and neighbors. Also, we like to mind our own business as best we can. We live and let live, and we deserve a serious, competent government that does its duty dedicated to the common good. That government is chosen by regular elections. Voters in great numbers should decide those elections, not the few officeholders who suppress the vote to remain in power.
Congratulations and deep thanks to local Texas leaders who deliver good, innovative government every day. We applaud you. Shame on careerist political hacks like Ken Paxton, who abuse their office at the community’s expense.
Jaworski is a Texas attorney, international mediator and former mayor of Galveston.
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Publish date : 2024-09-14 00:09:00
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