Empower Texans May 15, 2018 by Erin Anderson
A Mexican national who allegedly registered and voted illegally in Harris County will be prosecuted by the state for felony voter fraud.
A non-citizen accused of illegally registering to vote in Harris County and voting in multiple Texas elections will be prosecuted by the state for voter fraud, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced Monday.
A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Laura Janeth Garza, a Mexican national, on two counts of election fraud related to the November 2016 presidential election. It’s a violation of state and federal law for non-citizens to register to vote.
Garza is charged with voter impersonation and ineligible voting, both second-degree felonies.
The Attorney General’s office said in a statement that a joint investigation with the Texas Department of Public Safety found Garza had illegally registered to vote in Harris County and cast ballots in 2004, 2012, and 2016 after stealing the identity of a U.S. citizen.
Garza’s fraud was only discovered when the citizen whose identity she stole applied for a U.S. passport and found that Garza had already done so using her identity.
The U.S. State Department referred Garza’s case to the Criminal Investigations Division of DPS, which is working with the AG’s office on the voter fraud investigation and prosecution.
“Here again, we see how the checkbox honor system of claiming citizenship in voter registration is flawed,†said Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a law firm dedicated to election integrity.
“Officials are finding ineligible voters by happenstance and luck,†Churchwell told Texas Scorecard.
PILF is currently engaged in federal and state lawsuits over Harris County’s refusal to disclose public records of non-citizens who registered to vote in the county, then were later discovered and removed from the voter rolls. County officials are dodging federal transparency laws to keep the records hidden.
The Foundation requested access to Harris County’s voter registration records under the National Voter Registration Act. The NVRA, also known as the “Motor Voter†law, includes a transparency provision that requires local election officials to allow public inspection of all records relating to voter roll maintenance.
Harris County Voter Registrar Ann Harris Bennett and County Attorney Vince Ryan — both Democrats — refused to allow inspection of the records, triggering a federal lawsuit filed by PILF in March. The AG’s office has twice told Ryan and Bennett that Harris County should disclose the records, once in a legal opinion requested by Ryan, and again in response to Ryan suing the AG to challenge that opinion.
More:
https://empowertexans.com/around-texas/texas-ag-to-prosecute-non-citizen-voter-fraud-in-harris-county/