While Dems Focus on Gov't Shutdown, Texas Just Found 95,000 Potential Non-Citizens Registered To Vote
Over the past several weeks, the establishment media’s primarily been focused on the government shutdown and the fallout from that — something that allowed a lot of stories to slip through the cracks.
One of the latest stories to fly under the radar was the fact that Texas found 95,000 potential non-citizens on its voter rolls — and the majority of them have voted.
The finding was announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday.
“Every single instance of illegal voting threatens democracy in our state and deprives individual Texans of their voice,” Paxton said in a statement, according to The New York Times.
“Nothing is more vital to preserving our Constitution than the integrity of our voting process, and my office will do everything within its abilities to solidify trust in every election in the state of Texas.”
VOTER FRAUD ALERT: The @TXsecofstate discovered approx 95,000 individuals identified by DPS as non-U.S. citizens have a matching voter registration record in TX, approx 58,000 of whom have voted in TX elections. Any illegal vote deprives Americans of their voice.
— Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) January 25, 2019
The Times, you may not be surprised, was unimpressed; calling Paxton a “firebrand,” the paper reported that “Democrats and voting rights advocates were skeptical of the state’s claims. More than 8.3 million people voted in the Texas governor’s race last year, which means that even if all 58,000 people who voted were, in fact, found to be noncitizens and voted in 2018 — a claim that no state official has made — they would have amounted to only 0.69 percent of all votes that were cast.”
The skepticism, at least from The Times’ point of view, seems to come from the fact that Republicans think voter fraud is a major issue and they — oh, sorry, “Democrats and voting rights advocates” — don’t.
The investigation, conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety over the course of nearly a year, found that 58,000 individuals who weren’t citizens had voted in Texas since 1996.
Even assuming that a fraction of that number voted in 2018, keep in mind how close Texas’ senatorial race was. While I somewhat doubt the narrative that the Lone Star State is turning purple, assume that it is — wouldn’t that mean even .1 percent of non-citizen voters could make a major difference?
Gov. Greg Abbott hinted that legislation to crack down on voter fraud would be forthcoming.
Thanks to Attorney General Paxton and the Secretary of State for uncovering and investigating this illegal vote registration. I support prosecution where appropriate. The State will work on legislation to safeguard against these illegal practices. #txlege #tcot https://t.co/UwtyXijVwK
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 25, 2019
Much of the coverage was muted and questioning, because apparently anything that raises questions about the idea that voter ID should be necessary needs to be shuffled off.
The liberal Texas Tribune, for example, noted that “(i)t’s possible that individuals flagged by the state — who provided DPS with documentation that indicated they were authorized to be in the country — could have become naturalized citizens since they obtained their driver’s license or ID card. A spokesman for the secretary of state said officials are ‘very confident’ that the data received from DPS is ‘current.'”
“People get naturalized,” Chris Davis, head of the Texas Association of Elections Administrators, said. “It’s entirely too early to say that (they voted illegally).”
In short, nothing can possibly convince the left that there’s any sort of reason for voter ID or that a possible 0.69 percent of the electorate — at least during the last cycle — could make a difference. This is all propaganda from “firebrands” on the right who just want to disenfranchise people and are probably surreptitious bigots.
Whatever. The proper number of non-citizen voters is 0. The idea that all 95,000 non-citizen voters on the rolls since 1996 became naturalized — or even that a significant portion of them did — is about as weak as rationalization gets.
Whether the left likes it or not, voter fraud is real. We don’t know how much of an issue it is because the Democrats keep on blocking any attempt to do a nationwide investigation, and they extenuate any evidence of voter fraud when it rears its head.
Meanwhile, we can expect more coverage on how a lacuna in the government shutdown means President Donald Trump lost and how he was a big fat meanie for even requesting wall funding.
After all, as The Times is fond of saying, all the news that’s fit to print — right?
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