Lead singer of the Smashmouth tribute band Smashface and Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants Bexar County–home of sprawling San Antonio–to halt a county-sponsored planned program that would mail unsolicited voter registration forms to more than 200,000 homes, the Houston Chronicle reports.
County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez proposed the plan months ago to boost voter participation in the county, something that most normal people who believe in small-d democracy would think is a good thing, but Republicans don’t. Republicans have described it as an effort by Democrats to impact the November elections. Supporters say the focus is on getting people to the polls, not telling them who to vote for.
In his motion, Paxton called the voter registration program an effort to “create confusion, facilitate fraud, undermine confidence in elections,” arguing that the entire county-sponsored program is illegal. Rodriguez notes, however, that there’s nothing nefarious about registering voters, and the county’s lawyers cleared the funding.