AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is sounding the alarm that scores of vote fraud cases are going unpunished in the Lone Star State thanks to a 2021 judicial ruling stripping his office of the authority to pursue them, and hopes the recent defeat of three of the judges responsible will help turn things around.
Nexstar Media reports that Paxton backed Gina Parker, Lee Finley, and David Schenck, three primary challengers to three Republican judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Sharon Keller, Michelle Slaughter, and Barbara Hervey. In 2021’s State v. Stephens, those judges joined an 8-1 majority ruling that the Texas AG’s office does not have independent authority under the state constitution to prosecute criminal cases, which had the effect of preventing Paxton from prosecuting vote fraud cases neglected by localities.
“Since 1951, the legislature has directed the Attorney General to prosecute voter fraud. Out of the blue, the Court of Criminal Appeals – who no one ever follows – suddenly decided it was unconstitutional after thousands of cases and probably hundreds of judges had precedent saying prosecuting voter fraud was fine,” Paxton told Nexstar. “It’s ludicrous that this Court of Appeals suddenly, out of the blue, after 71 years of precedent, struck down this statute.”
“So the voters now have a decision. Do you want voter fraud prosecuted or do you not want it prosecuted?” he continued. “If you want the laws that are passed by the legislature followed, we’re going to have to have Gina Parker, Lee Finley, and David Schenck elected statewide to overcome this decision.”
Keller and Slaughter claimed that they were following the text of the Texas Constitution, but Paxton says the constitution expressly allows the AG’s office to pursue cases the state legislature has specifically tasked it with pursuing, as is the case with vote fraud.
The Texas Constitution specifically provides that the Attorney General is to act when directed by the legislature. 71 years ago the Texas legislature was so concerned about voter fraud that it directed the Attorney General to prosecute it. Suddenly, two years ago – 2 days after…
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 5, 2024
On Wednesday, Parker, Finley, and Schenck all prevailed over Keller, Slaughter, and Hervey, KERA reports.
“Republicans clearly want a new chapter begun on this Court,” Parker declared. “That was demonstrated tonight in the historic change that has occurred. While I take nothing for granted this fall, if elected, I look forward to working under the experienced leadership of our new Presiding Judge, David Schenck. We will roll up our sleeves and work to set higher and better standards for this Court beginning in January.”
Writing for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Assistant Attorney General Levi Fuller concurs with Paxton’s diagnosis of the problem. Despite his boss’s efforts, “I was one of only three prosecutors in the Election Integrity Division, and we were tasked with responding to allegations of election fraud across all 254 counties in the State of Texas,” he says. “We simply did not have the manpower to pursue every single allegation and were often forced to limit most of our prosecutions to areas with district attorneys who would be amendable to allowing us to prosecute which – maybe unsurprisingly – did not include counties with some of the largest cities in Texas: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, or Austin.”
“To put it bluntly, the Stephens decision left no one else to prosecute these cases, and no way to revive them,” he warns. “Several election fraud cases that waited years for trial were dismissed, and defendants indicted by duly empaneled grand juries for election fraud offenses received the very unexpected windfall of being able to avoid trial altogether.”
Election integrity has long been an issue in American politics, intensified when the 2020 presidential election was marked by widespread election irregularities and numerous allegations that the election had been rigged for Joe Biden against Donald Trump, bolstered by the dramatic expansion of voting by mail in the wake of COVID-19. Twenty-eight states relaxed their mail ballot rules in 2020, contributing to a 17-million vote increase from 2016. In addition to mail ballots generally being less secure than in-person votes, four of those states – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – changed their rules without legislative consent. Those four alone comprised 56 of Biden’s electoral votes, more than enough to decide the victor.
At the same time, attempts to prove the election had been stolen were undermined by judges who dismissed some claims on process issues without ever considering their merits as well as flawed legal briefs and dramatic examples of “smoking guns” that never panned out. Nevertheless, the controversy did lead to 14 states tightening their election rules over the following two years. Election integrity in Texas has particularly large implications.
The large, consistently Republican state’s 40 electoral votes are second only to Democrat California’s 54, and if fraud were to help flip its election outcomes, the result would be a virtually insurmountable advantage for national Democrats.