Paxton’s tactics in Texas are undermining our electoral democracy

In a democracy, voters’ political views are constantly evolving, and more dramatic changes are not uncommon. For those currently in power who may disagree with such changes, there are only two correct answers: convince voters that their new or emerging political views are wrong and should be abandoned, or change your views , to better adapt them to the new elections majority.

Some Texas leaders have pursued at least some of the former, with limited success among voters in the emerging electoral majority. Others, such as Attorney General Ken Paxton, rejected either response and instead advocated an illegitimate approach to an emerging electoral majority with policy views that may differ from those of the state’s current leadership. The effort of these leaders is to discourage or prevent as many voters as possible from participating in the emerging electoral majority.

Paxton’s actions included recent, suspiciously timed, early-morning raids on private homes of elderly Texans as part of an alleged two-year investigation into registered voters trying to help their peers who may need help because of their age or a disability completely legal voting by mail. Recently, Paxton has threatened to use his official authority to prevent counties from sending voter registration materials to unregistered voters.

He has also publicly issued an election advisory overemphasizing and exaggerating non-citizen voting, even though there is no evidence that such voting is a problem of even minimal magnitude anywhere in Texas. Finally, he’s trying to protect his right to intimidate election workers in court by threatening to enforce a new Texas law that bans election-related speech in the presence of an inanimate object – a mail-in ballot.

The timing, tactics and goals of these measures clearly demonstrate an attempt to deter or prevent participation by new and less experienced voters from Texas’ growing Latino community, a group whose views overall do not necessarily align with those of Paxton and others Positions coincide in the national leadership. But voter suppression, whether through deterrence through threats and intimidation or through direct obstruction, is a completely anti-democratic response to a new or emerging electoral majority.

We should all expect better from our elected leaders. Voter suppression is similar to the efforts of authoritarian dictators in other countries when they experience a dangerous decline in popular support in the run-up to an “election.” In Texas and across the United States, we must reject such efforts as a significant threat to the survival of democracy. In the context of redistricting, the consensus is that voters should elect the legislature, not the legislature electing their constituents. Efforts by those in power, including the attorney general, to suppress voters are an even more direct expression of the legislature choosing its voters.

In no democracy should elected officials vote among eligible voters, suppressing the participation of some and facilitating the participation of others. The widespread practice by elected leaders of barring certain eligible voters from voting threatens to turn our electoral system into a democracy in name only.

But as worrying as voter suppression is in response to voter change in a democracy, the practice is even more problematic when it has a racist dimension. This is the case in Texas, where some differences in political views among voters are accompanied by growth in the voting population of Latinos and other groups of color.

In this context, Paxton’s suppressive tactics not only undermine our electoral democracy, but also threaten the rule of law, including the fundamental principle of equal protection. This is a double threat that we can and must do without.

Thomas A. Saenz is president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

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