Texas Officials Confirm Errors In List of Non-Citizen Voters
The Texas secretary of state’s office sent out notices Tuesday that names included on the list of 98,000 non-citizen voters were included in error.
Last week, Secretary of State David Whitley announced that his office was flagging 95,000 residents who received drivers licenses while not being citizens, but appear on voter lists. On Monday, Whitley increased the number to 98,000, saying that 58,000 of those had voted in elections over the last 22 years. Tuesday, Election administrators across the state received notices telling them to postpone contacting people on the list to prove their citizenship as some were added in error.
In Texas, non-citizens can obtain a driver's license simply by proving their legal residency status in the country, but do not have to update the DPS if their citizenship status updates. Opponents of the list argued that the criteria of the list was too broad and didn't account for those who became naturalized citizens after getting a license but before registering to vote. Dallas County Elections Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole confirmed that the DPS included names on their list that had already provided proof of citizenship.
There has also been inconsistency in the number of potential non-citizen voters in each county. As reported by the Dallas Morning News, officials in Cameron County were originally told that all but 100 of the 1,600 names in their county were added in error, but were later told they were given incorrect information and only 300 of the names were added in error.