In response to County election departments across Texas receiving a recent flood of formal challenges by third-party actors questioning whether voter registrations are valid, LDF and partners at the Texas Civil Rights Project, CLC, and the ACLU of Texas send guidance to all 254 Texas counties urging them to reject all third-party challenges that are not supported by the statutory “personal knowledge” requirement. The letters were sent between August 13-19.
Most of the challenges at present utilize United States Postal Service change-of-address information to identify the voter registrations of voters they believe no longer reside at the address at which they are registered to vote. Under the Texas Election Code, challenges to a voter’s registration may only be considered if supported by the “personal knowledge of the voter desiring to challenge the registration” regarding “a specific qualification that the challenged voter has not met.” Tex. Elec. Code § 16.092(2). This heightened standard is distinct from the process of filing mass challenges in our other states and excludes challenges based on speculation, guesswork, and second-hand information—only firsthand observation or experience is sufficient to constitute “personal knowledge.” That standard excludes challenges based on speculation, guesswork, and second-hand information—only firsthand observation or experience is sufficient to constitute “personal knowledge.”
The letter makes clear that a challenge only based on USPS change-of-address data, or similar commercial vendor data, is not a proper challenge under the Election Code and therefore cannot trigger further action. County election offices must reject these challenges pursuant to Texas and Federal law. Pursuit of such a challenge based on third-party information not only is improper under Texas law but also may violate federal legal protections for voters.
Read one of the letters here.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
