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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into 33 potential noncitizens allegedly illegally voting in the 2024 general election.
Paxton, a Republican who is running a Senate primary challenge against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced the investigation on Tuesday.
In a press statement, Paxton’s office said it was made aware of the potential illegal votes by Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. The statement said Nelson was only able to access the information because of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump this March.
Trump’s executive order, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” directed the Departments of State and Homeland Security to give all states “access to appropriate systems for verifying the citizenship or immigration status of individuals registering to vote or who are already registered.”
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Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton (left) has launched an investigation into 33 potential noncitizens allegedly voting in the 2024 general election. (Justin Lane/Reuters and AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
The order also directed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to provide U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi with “complete information on all foreign nationals who have indicated on any immigration form that they have registered or voted in a Federal, State, or local election, and shall also take all appropriate action to submit to relevant State or local election officials such information.”
Part of this order involved the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s SAVE database being opened up to the states at no cost, through which Nelson was able to access the information about the alleged illegal voting, according to Paxton’s statement.
Trump said in the order that “free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic” and “the right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election.”
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Voting booths are seen at Glass Elementary School’s polling station in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Nov. 8, 2022. (MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)
In August 2024, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the state had removed 1.1 million people from its voter rolls, including individuals who had moved out-of-state, were deceased or who were non-citizens.
A statement by the governor’s office said that over 6,500 of the individuals removed from the state’s voter rolls were potential noncitizens. The statement said that approximately 1,930 of the removed noncitizens had a voter history.
Later reporting by the Texas Tribune alleged that the governor’s office had inflated the numbers of noncitizen voters. The governor’s office, however, has said that the removal process “has been, and will continue to be, ongoing.”
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov.1, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
In his Tuesday statement announcing the investigation into the 33 potential noncitizens voting, Paxton said that “these potential instances of unlawful voting will be thoroughly investigated, and I will continue to stand with President Trump in fighting to ensure that our state’s elections are safe and secure.”
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“In order to be able to trust the integrity of our elections, the results must be determined by our own citizens—not foreign nationals breaking the law to illegally vote,” said Paxton, adding that “noncitizens must not be allowed to influence American elections, and I will use the full weight of my office to investigate all voter fraud.”
