Since early in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, he claimed that voter fraud is rampant, that Democrats were allowing undocumented immigrants to vote, and the Hillary Clinton’s popular vote win was the result of those illegal voters. After a lengthy investigation by a Texas secretary of state turned out to be completely fraudulent, those claims were proven once again false.
From Whitley's letter:#txlege pic.twitter.com/hkIF6rD3YM
— Chuck Lindell (@chucklindell) May 27, 2019
David Whitley was installed as secretary of state in Texas in December after the former secretary resigned and he immediately went to work claiming that more than a hundred thousand undocumented immigrants voted in Texas elections. He provided a list to the attorney general, which resulted in the discovery that the names were mostly naturalized citizens who have every right to vote. Whitley needed to be confirmed by the Texas legislature to continue on in his position, but Democrats banded together to block that nomination.
According to Dallas News:
‘Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Whitley, a former top aide, to the position in December after the previous secretary of state resigned. But just before lawmakers finished the 2019 session Monday afternoon without confirming him, the embattled elections chief resigned “effective immediately.”‘
Instinct will be to call David Whitley's resignation his failure. That's too simplistic. Senate Dems & skilled voting rights attorneys pulled back the covers on @GregAbbott_TX's scheme to suppress vote & use @txsecof
office as a tool of discrimination. Greg Abbott failed today.— Matt Angle (@LSPmatt) May 27, 2019
The efforts by Democrats helped end the five-month travesty of attempts to kick eligible voters off the rolls, and Whitley will no longer be able to try to suppress votes in Texas. Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said that:
‘It was long overdue for David Whitley to vacate his office and now it’s time for Governor Abbott to appoint a new Secretary of State who will respect our democracy and our great state.’
The end of the saga?
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley leaves his job months after presiding over a botched review of the voter rolls that questioned the citizenship of thousands of eligible voters. https://t.co/SX1feKe86h
via @alexazura
— Emily Ramshaw (@eramshaw) May 27, 2019
A secretary of state is usually confirmed without issues, but an error this large, and especially one that gave fuel to such vicious misinformation campaigns pushed by Trump and many others in the GOP, was more than Texas Democrats were able to overlook. The investigation sparked lawsuits and protests, but most importantly, it sparked a push for Whitley’s resignation.
‘Usually a perfunctory act, Whitley’s nomination became a flash point this session after his office questioned the citizenship of nearly 100,000 Texas voters. Facing steep pressure from voting rights advocates, Democrats in the Texas Senate Democrats had said they could not vote to confirm Whitley because of the botched investigation. The caucus stuck together during the session despite significant political pressure to drop their opposition.’
After botched voter rolls, Texas Democrats stand in resistance against Secretary of State David Whitley with one day left in the legislative session. https://t.co/Ur8fDFrwzl
— CBSDFW (@CBSDFW) May 27, 2019
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
