The only way that Republicans can win elections now is by cheating, and after their walloping in November, their schemes have only gotten more desperate. The calls of "voter fraud" have long been a way to intimidate and disenfranchise voters, and what's happening right now in Texas is a perfect example of how this bureaucratic terror continues to be used (and fall apart under scrutiny) by endangered Republicans.

In late January, the newly appointed Texas Secretary of State, David Whitley, announced that his office had found that up to 95,000 non-citizens were registered to vote in the state and that 58,000 had voted in the past. He then reported it to Attorney General Ken Paxton, who subsequently gave county officials the right to reach out to voters and purge them if they didn’t respond within 30 days. This is exactly what happened in Georgia and Ohio, which swung elections to Republicans this November.

It was an obviously outrageous claim and attempt to disenfranchise a huge swath of voters. It also provided fuel to GOP conspiracy theorists and bad-faith actors. Donald Trump blasted it out on Twitter as a justification for his endless conspiracy theories. That was half the point — to get a massive number in the national news to further push the false and dangerous narrative.

Since then, lawsuits have been launched against Whitley and the number has been dropping like the value of a Trump casino. Headlines over the last week have shown lawmakers and election officials hacking away at the number with ease, without even yet diving deep into the research.

In Harris County, home to Houston, for example, it was clear that Whitley’s office was targeted immigrants, and the correction has been swift:

On Tuesday, officials in Harris County and several other counties were told to remove from their lists names of people who registered to vote at Texas Department of Public Safety offices. Harris County officials also were advised to remove those who registered to vote at a naturalization ceremony, said Douglas Ray, a special assistant county attorney who specializes in election issues. With the new criteria, Harris County was able to remove more than 60 percent of the names off the nearly 30,000-voter list it was sent. Only about 11,000 names remain.

And in Dallas, the same thing is happening:

Dallas County Elections Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole said the county’s voter-roll database vendor has identified 1,715 people as being incorrectly placed on an initial list of 9,938 registered voters sent to the county over the weekend. The share that was flawed, 17 percent, hasn't been confirmed by state officials yet but could climb if the officials flag more people as being on the list erroneously, she said.

In some counties, literally all the “non-citizens” singled out are indeed legal citizens.

So far, over 20,000 people have been removed from the danger of being on that initial list of 95,000 “ illegal” voters, and the research is just getting started. Due to three lawsuits against Whitley, many counties with civic-minded leaders have not taken action against any voters yet, which is good news.

But, unfortunately, some counties with conservative activist election officials have been playing along with Whitley’s scheme and working to intimidate and throw legal voters off the rolls. Via the Texas Tribune:

Cheryl Johnson, Galveston county's tax assessor-collector, said her office started sending letters Monday asking people on the list to verify their citizenship or risk expulsion from voter rolls. But on Tuesday, Johnson said, the secretary of state's office notified her that some on the list had been verified as citizens. "We managed to retrieve the second batch of letters that we were going to mail today," said Johnson. "The ones we sent yesterday, we're going to go back and check those." Johnson said 837 Galveston County voters were flagged by the state, and her office sent letters to 92 registered voters on Monday with plans to mail more on subsequent days. The letters ask that the recipients provide a U.S. passport, birth certificate or citizenship papers to her office within 30 days, she said. Johnson said she realized by Tuesday afternoon that more than half of the letters sent Monday matched a source code the secretary of state’s office said to check. She plans to send a letter to those affected on Wednesday. Ten letters that were supposed to be mailed out on Tuesday were also pulled, but her office still planned to send out 77 letters to registered voters in the area.

What a mess. And lest you think it’s all an honest mistake, at a hearing this week, Whitley proved what a callous thug he is, refusing to answer questions from Democrats and discounting the very real issues he has continued to put into play. Surely, he is aware that Texas has a long history of targeting voters of color for disenfranchisement, yet this is what he said when asked about voter suppression:

In one awkward exchange, state Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat, asked Whitley to define voter suppression. “I think it’s irrelevant,” Whitley responded. “You’re the secretary of state, sir,” West shot back. “It is relevant to me if I’m going to vote for your confirmation.”

Disgraceful. And cynical. Republicans need two Democratic votes to confirm Whitley to his full-time job as Secretary of State. Let's hope Dems stay strong and stick together.

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