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Texas Governor Greg Abbott led efforts to purge thousands of voters from state lists, according to e-mail correspondence released Tuesday.
The revelation comes after last week's resignation of Texas Secretary of State David Whitley, who would have been largely responsible for the aggressive efforts to suppress voters.
However, the publication of emails revealed that the state had begun deploying the program several months before Whitley's appointment in December, and that the former secretary of state disgraced had " nothing to do with the program, "said Luis Vera, general counsel. of the League of Latin American United Citizens (LULAC).
"It was Governor Abbott's program. He started with [Attorney General] Ken Paxton, and he did that thinking that they were going to get a stunt and they got caught, pants down, "Vera told ThinkProgress.
"They're all racist pigs," added Vera. "Greg Abbott wants a white America. End of the story. "
The revelation about the governor's participation in the purge was reported for the first time by the San Antonio Express newspaper.
Abbott's office, in a statement revealed to the media by its press officer, John Wittman, categorically denied the charges.
"These accusations are patently false. Neither the governor nor his office gave the instruction to start this process, "the statement said.
A few weeks after taking office last January, Whitley drew up a list of nearly 100,000 people who he mistakenly identified as non-citizens, claiming that they should be struck off the voters list. Most, in fact, were in fact American citizens, and a federal judge blocked his plan to remove names.
Abbott – who himself has a long tradition of pressure for electoral repression – will now be able to choose a replacement to replace Whitley as the state's election official, a crucial post for the year. 2020.
The legal center of the campaign and LULAC obtained the documents after taking legal action against the state for its purge of voters program. Danielle Lang, co-director of voting rights and clipping at the legal center of the campaign, said in a statement that the organization had decided to make the documents public in "the interests of transparency".
"One of the things that comes out of these documents is that as of August 2018 already, the governor's office was giving priority to the failed voter purge program that ended with our settlement this spring," Lang said. .
Over the years, Texas has put in place numerous schemes to thwart Democratic voters seeking to vote. The state has imposed new voter identification laws, erected barriers to early voting and put in place rules making it more difficult for people trying to vote to assist. Minority voters and students are among those most affected by repressive efforts.
Federal judges have overruled the laws on abolishing voters in Texas more than half a dozen times in recent years. Some of the bills that were canceled forced voters to present approved pieces of identification at the polls, which made racist manipulation possible.
Voter advocates told ThinkProgress last week that they suspected Abbott of being at the origin of the purge and that Whitley was, in fact, a fall guy.
"He did not develop this plan alone. He was not even posted long enough to invent it, "said Glen Maxey, legislative affairs director for the Democratic Party of Texas. "Either he was lying to us in bold, or it was something that had happened with his signature or his name."
Texas is infamous for its aggressive efforts to suppress voters. An approved voter suppression program this month banned mobile polls allowing thousands of students, seniors and low-income residents to vote throughout the state. This measure awaits Abbott's signature.
Republicans in the Senate recently passed a draconian law on voter suppression that would have criminalized Texans who vote when they are ineligible, even if they do so involuntarily. This measure, which would also have prevented people from helping other people to vote, died at State House last month.
This story was updated with a statement issued by the Abbott office for the media.
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