Who was behind that botched voter purge that caused now-former Secretary of State David Whitley to not get confirmed by the Senate? Greg Abbott, that’s who.
Still the only voter ID anyone should need
Two top officials at the Department of Public Safety named Gov. Greg Abbott’s office as a driving force in the state’s program to purge nearly 100,000 suspected non-U.S. citizens from Texas’ voter rolls, emails made public Tuesday show.
Abbott’s office, however, on Tuesday denied it had any contact with the agency before the launch of the effort in late January.
[…]
The emails were made public Tuesday by the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, which represented plaintiffs who sued the state.
In an August 2018 email, John Crawford, a top official of the driver license division at the Texas Department of Public Safety, told employees that DPS had previously turned over records to compare with state voter rolls, and “we have an urgent request from the governor’s office to do it again.”
That same day, the director of the driver license division, Amanda Arriaga, wrote in a separate email that “the Governor is interested in getting this information as soon as possible.”
In a statement, Abbott denied talking to the Department of Public Safety about the issue until March of this year.
“Neither the Governor, nor the Governor’s office gave a directive to initiate this process,” said Abbott spokesman John Wittman. “No one speaks for the Governor’s office, but the Governor’s office.”
Sure is amazing what you can find out when public records are made public, isn’t it? There’s a reason why Ken Paxton is fighting the release of other SOS files so hard. Abbott’s flunky can claim that the DPS spokesperson doesn’t speak for Abbott, but I think we all know she didn’t make that rationale up on her own. Glen Maxey was right: A scheme like this doesn’t come out of nowhere. One way or another, it comes from the boss. We just now have some documentation to back that up. The Statesman and Think Progress have more.
UPDATE: Ross Ramsey weighs in.
Whitley was an obvious fall-guy.
In other states, this would lead to calls for the governor’s resignation.
In other states, this would lead to calls for the governor’s resignation.
Too bad he isn’t subject to confirmation.
Lies and the lying liars who tell them.
See Greg Abbott
Who is the FRIGGING VENDOR whom he allowed access to both state voters rolls and DPS records? There is an ANONYMOUS VENDOR with everyone’s records who is probably still creating folly with Abbott’s assistance!!!
WHO IS THE VENDOR!!!!!!!!