Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
Law enforcement officials in Taylor County, Texas, have launched an investigation into a suspected case of voter fraud involving an election volunteer allegedly attempting to sign up a minor to vote.
The Abilene Police Department Fraud Unit opened the probe this week after a citizen filed a complaint alleging “one of two major parties” tried to register the unidentified minor while working at a booth at the West Texas Fair and Rodeo, according to an Abilene Police press release.
Reached for comment Thursday, Rick Tomlin, Public Information Officer for the police department, referred The Federalist to the press release. The statement includes very few details but notes that the fraud unit is working with the Taylor County Elections Office, Taylor County Judge Phil Crowley’s Office, and the Attorney General’s Office.
As of Thursday evening, no charges had been filed in the case.
‘Necessary Precaution’
Freda Ragan, Tavlor County Elections administrator, told me that contrary to some confusing press accounts, the suspect was not employed with her office.
“This person does not work in any way for my office or the county,” she said in a phone interview. The individual, Ragan said, was appointed as a volunteer deputy registrar through the Elections office. “I terminated her certification.”
In a statement, the administrator said the suspect will not be involved with the general election process in Taylor County. Ragan said she is “personally reviewing and vetting” every registration received by her office “to ensure these applications are lawful.” She said the applications are then sent to the Texas Secretary of State’s office for further review, verified against state and federal records. Only after the two-step review are registrations added to the state’s voter rolls, the election official said.
“While individuals are presumed innocent unless convicted in a Court of Law, in light of the ongoing investigation and as a necessary precaution, I have taken these steps so that Citizens of Taylor County can rest assured in the integrity of the November 2024 election,” Ragan said in the statement.
Fertile Ground
Some Texas elections officials are complaining that concerned citizens have had the audacity to challenge thousands of voter registrations, though they are allowed to do so under state law. Election integrity watchdogs like True the Vote are “piling extra work on elections staff who already update the voter rolls regularly,” KERA News, “NPR for North Texas,” lamented in a story this week.
Inundated by a flood of illegal immigrants thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies, Texas election integrity advocates are understandably concerned about the potential of noncitizens voting in November’s election. Texas posted the second-highest number of illegal immigrants in the country in 2021, according to a Pew Research study. The numbers have only soared since.
Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas has removed more than 6,500 noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls since he signed sweeping election law reforms in 2021. More than 1 million ineligible voters have been struck from the voter list, the governor said, including individuals who have moved out of state, nearly 460,000 deceased people, and more than 6,000 felons.
Left-wing groups are working with the Democratic Party to turn the Lone Star State blue, with a goal of building a “long-term ecosystem of support, resources, and talent” that “won’t dissolve into thin air after Election Day,” the Texas Tribune reported in June. At the same time, the Biden-Harris administration has led an unprecedented, taxpayer-funded get-out-the-vote campaign targeting left-leaning voters. The effort is using federal and state resources to register and mobilize voters.
Ragan, the Taylor County elections chief, told The Federalist that election fraud is unheard of in her county. But election integrity hawks say the ground is fertile for cheating in this high stakes presidential election year.
“The department wants citizens to use caution and good judgement in this election cycle which has been, and continues to be highly contested,” the Abilene Police press release cautions.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.