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Texas sues Justice Department over agency’s deployment of election observers to eight counties

Posted on by Bobb
Texas sues Justice Department over agency’s deployment of election observers to eight counties

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Justice Department over a dispute surrounding the agency’s plan to use federal agents as election observers. Election Day.

In the lawsuit announced Monday, Paxton, a Republican, argued that the Biden administration does not have the authority to send Ministry of Justice agents to oversee elections in eight Texas counties: Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller. The Texas Election Code does not include federal agents in the list of people allowed to be at the “central counting station while ballots are being counted,” a Republican lawmaker said.

“The Biden-Harris Administration’s lawless campaign of intimidation impinges on states’ constitutional authority to conduct free and fair elections,” Paxton wrote in a press release. “Texas will not be intimidated, and I will work hard to prevent federal agencies from interfering in our elections.”

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The lawsuit comes after the Justice Department said Friday it would send election agents to the Lone Star State and 26 other states to “monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws.” With the agency’s move coming just days before the election, Justice Department agents are gathering patrol polling places in critical districts in each of the seven battleground states, as well as in states such as Texas, Missouri and Florida.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the CPAC 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“Texas law is clear: DOJ observers are not permitted to be at the polling place where ballots are cast or at the central counting station where ballots are counted,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said in a letter following the DOJ announcement.

Missouri and Florida also vowed to oppose the Justice Department’s new oversight measures. reasoning the same way Paxton said state law “severely limits” who can attend polling places.

“The Department of Justice just doesn’t seem to get it—we don’t need them here; we don’t want them here,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said. “This time we are taking it one step further and filing a lawsuit against the Department of Justice to force them to stop their ongoing harassment.”

Meanwhile, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd warned the Justice Department in a Friday memo that the presence of federal election observers “would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in elections.”

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However, he assured the agency that Florida would send its own observers to Broward, Miami-Dade, Orange and Osceola counties to “ensure there is no interference in the voting process.”

The Justice Department promised Florida election officials in Orange and Osceola counties that federal agents would remain outside the polling places in question as required by law. Orlando Sentinel.