(Texas Scorecard) – Travis County officials have countersued Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State Jane Nelson, claiming Paxton’s attempt to stop an “unlawful” mass mailing of voter registration forms violated the National Voter Registration Act.
“Today, Travis County, once again, fights back,” Travis County Attorney Delia Garza said during a press conference.
Paxton had sued the Travis County Commissioners Court and Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant, arguing they lacked statutory authority to identify potentially unregistered voters.
The suit came after the county approved a $48,000 contract with Civic Government Solutions LLC (CGS) in June “to assist with a pilot for voter outreach services” and earmarked $500,000 for the program. As “the sole bidder” in Travis’ July invitation for “unregistered voter outreach services,” CGS got a contract totaling $3,562.80 per 10,000 names of eligible resident-citizens.
Paxton had filed a similar suit against Bexar County for approving an “unlawful program” allowing CGS “to print and mail State Voter Registration Forms, with postage-paid return envelopes, to unregistered voters in locations based on targeting agreed to by the County.” Bexar’s award permitted mailing “approximately 210,000 forms and component envelopes to newly identified residents” within three weeks from execution and payment to “targeted, unregistered” residents.
Judge Antonia Arteaga of the 57th Civil District Court ruled Paxton’s motion moot as CGS had already mailed voter applications.
But CGS sent these from an Austin-based P.O. Box using a pseudonym: Election Mail Service (EMS).
Despite a return envelope to the Bexar Elections Administrator, the form directly connects EMS to CGS: “Please contact us with any questions: [email protected]”
Texas Scorecard obtained copies sent to several long-registered Bexar citizens.
ProPublica found Election Mail Service was “a project of a Texas public benefit corporation called Civitech” since at least 2020.
Alabama’s former Secretary of State John Merrill warned citizens against EMS’ unofficial voter registration forms in October 2020. Merrill’s letter to EMS stated its “mailing list appears to be based off an outdated voter list. Voters who are already registered are receiving this letter, as are individuals who have passed away and were already removed from our rolls.”
A week later, Ohio and North Carolina officials also released warnings about Civitech’s mailing of unsolicited prefilled registration forms in 2020.
Although Civitech Founder and Executive Director Jeremy Smith repeatedly claimed his other venture CGS remains “non-partisan,” Civitech registered CGS’ web domain, Civitech shares CGS’ address, and all of Civitech’s chief officers share the same titles in CGS. Civitech explicitly has “targeted” unregistered voters who will vote Democrat.
Smith stressed to Bexar County’s Commissioners Court that Civitech had a “firewall” between CGS based on the latter’s bylaws and contracts, but never mentioned EMS.
Notably, the Bexar purchase award did not authorize fictitious business names or subsidiaries on or to send materials. Yet, Bexar presumably approved the form as the award terms state “County is responsible for providing content approval within 10 days following execution of this agreement to ensure timely delivery.”
Paxton filed an appeal against Bexar Elections Administrator Jaquelyn Callanen for a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction. His office did not reply to requests for comment before publication.
