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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton waves to the crowd during a rally featuring
former President Donald Trump on Oct. 22, 2022. Credit: Nick Wagner/AP
Democracy


THEY WERE TRYING TO HELP RUN ELECTIONS. THEN THEY GOT CRIMINALLY INVESTIGATED.


TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN PAXTON HASN’T JUST BEEN PURSUING SUPPOSED VOTER
FRAUD. HIS OFFICE HAS ALSO CRIMINALLY INVESTIGATED AT LEAST 10 ELECTION WORKERS,
IN A HARBINGER OF POTENTIAL POST-MIDTERM TURMOIL.

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Joshua Kaplan Nov. 3, 6 a.m. EDT
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Co-published with The Texas Tribune

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to
receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, Republican officials around the
country have been giving increasing attention and resources to investigating
election crimes. Most have focused on the alleged wrongdoing of voters.

But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also working a different angle: His
office has been criminally investigating the people who help run elections.

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Over the past two years, Paxton’s office opened at least 10 investigations into
alleged crimes by election workers, a more extensive effort than previously
known, according to records obtained by ProPublica. One of his probes was
spurred by a complaint from a county GOP chair, who lost her reelection bid in a
landslide. She then refused to certify the results, citing “an active
investigation” by the attorney general.

In at least two of the cases, Paxton’s office unsuccessfully tried to indict
election workers, attempts that were first reported by the Austin
American-Statesman. In the remaining eight investigations identified by
ProPublica, it is unclear just how far the probes went. As of mid-October, none
of the cases resulted in criminal charges.



The attorney general’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Most of Paxton’s investigations of election workers center on allegations of
obstructing a poll watcher, which is banned by a controversial and recently
expanded law that experts fear could open the door for turmoil in the election
process. Texas is one of the few states where blocking the view or limiting the
movements of poll watchers — partisan volunteers who monitor election sites —
can bring criminal penalties. Obstruction is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a
year in jail.

Experts worry such investigations could exact a stiff price, chilling
participation in the process, slowing down elections and fostering
misinformation and distrust in the vote. These probes may be a harbinger of
potential chaos in the midterms.

“To have law enforcement policing around and creating the perception that these
elections are not secure is doing enormous damage to democracy,” said Lorraine
Minnite, a political scientist at Rutgers University, Camden who has studied
voter fraud allegations.

Paxton, who has been under a securities fraud indictment for seven years, has
touted his eagerness to pursue election-related crimes. He created a unit
dedicated to doing so five years ago, long before so-called election integrity
units became a trend in Republican-controlled states. (He’s denied wrongdoing in
the ongoing securities fraud case.)

Between January 2020 and September 2022, records show, the office opened at
least 390 cases looking into potential election crimes. That includes criminal
investigations of both voters and election workers. It’s not clear how many
cases Paxton’s office attempted to prosecute. But the records show that, like
other prosecutors’ efforts around the country, Paxton often comes up empty. His
office secured five election-related convictions during that period.

A skeptic of the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election, Paxton has been
soliciting tips from the public about the upcoming midterms, during which he
will be operating with broad new powers. Last year, the Texas Legislature
dramatically expanded the state’s ability to pursue criminal sanctions against
election officials. This year’s midterms will be the first general election
where law enforcement could use the new criminal statutes to prosecute.



Paxton will also be sending a “task force” to Harris County, which contains
Houston, a Democratic stronghold, to respond to “legal issues” with the
election, according to a letter from the Texas secretary of state. Paxton is up
for reelection in the midterms, in a race that polls indicate could be close.

America’s voting system depends on the thousands of public employees and
volunteers, often retirees, who do the tedious job of managing elections.
Officials have long reported challenges in recruiting enough poll workers to run
elections efficiently. Now, prospective poll workers may find themselves
wrestling with the possibility of facing criminal charges.

This growing scrutiny and animosity have taken a toll. Officials have resigned
en masse, as conspiracy theories and physical threats have increasingly become a
part of the job. Over the last two years, roughly a third of Texas’ election
administrators have left their posts, according to the Texas secretary of state.

Paxton’s election worker investigations span large, heavily Democratic cities
and deep-red rural counties alike. Some officials learned they were under
scrutiny when they were contacted by sergeants in Paxton’s office. Others told
ProPublica they were unaware an investigation had occurred. At least five
suspects were in their 60s or 70s. Several cases were prompted by a referral
from the Texas secretary of state. Others stemmed from complaints made by
small-town sheriffs or voters.

Sam Taylor, a spokesperson for the secretary of state, said the office is
required to refer complaints to the attorney general if there is reasonable
cause to believe a crime occurred.

Dana DeBeauvoir said she has already seen the impact of Paxton’s efforts on the
ground — and in her own life. She told ProPublica that in her 36 years as the
top election official in Travis County, where Austin is located, nothing
compared to the disruption she saw in the 2020 election.

When an unmasked poll watcher named Jennifer Fleck began photographing the
counting of ballots, which was against the rules, a volunteer asked her to
leave. Fleck refused, then began screaming and banging on the window of the room
where votes were being counted, DeBeauvoir said. Ultimately, the police arrived,
arrested Fleck and charged her with criminal trespass.

Officers allegedly found that Fleck had a “button camera on her shirt” connected
to a “recording device that had been secreted in Fleck’s pants,” according to
police records. Fleck also faces a perjury charge because she swore in an
affidavit that she would not use recording devices. The case is pending.

Weeks later, DeBeauvoir said, the county attorney informed her that Paxton’s
office had a different view of the incident: DeBeauvoir herself was now the
subject of a criminal investigation. Attorneys advised her to not speak about
the case.

“I never felt more alone,” DeBeauvoir said. “Everything that was being said was
completely untrue. And I could not defend myself.”



The next year, Paxton attempted to prosecute DeBeauvoir for obstructing a poll
watcher, court records show. In an unusual move, when his office brought her
case before a grand jury, prosecutors didn’t do it in Travis County — where
DeBeauvoir lives and the incident took place — but in a suburban county that is
more conservative.

Yet, in a rarity for the criminal justice system, the grand jury in April 2021
declined to indict her.

“I was completely terrified” by the investigation, DeBeauvoir said.

Fleck did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Among the new powers Paxton will now be able to wield: The Legislature made it a
felony for an election official to send a mail-in voting application to a person
who didn’t request one. It gave new authority to poll watchers, allowing them
“free movement” around voting facilities. And it broadened the obstruction
statute Paxton had used to try to prosecute officials like DeBeauvoir.

“We’ve seen this kind of onslaught of laws that are essentially treating voting
booths like crime scenes,” said Liz Avore, senior policy adviser at Voting
Rights Lab, a nonprofit that analyzes election legislation. She said Texas’ new
poll-watching provisions could hamstring election officials who witness partisan
volunteers harassing voters and make it hard to keep polling places “a safe
place for voters to cast their ballots.”

Even when investigations don’t result in criminal charges, they can be used as a
pretext to disrupt the election process.

In 2020, Cynthia Brehm was running for reelection as chair of the Bexar County
Republican Party. She secured more votes than any other candidate in the March
primary, but it was a close race and she’d have to go through a runoff to retain
her seat. In June, Brehm made a Facebook post suggesting George Floyd’s death
was staged. Sen. Ted Cruz and other top Texas Republicans called for her to
resign. Her chances were starting to look bleak.

Then Brehm made a move that would have surprising consequences. She filed a
complaint with Paxton’s office about the election, records show, prompting the
attorney general to open a criminal investigation into the county elections
administrator.

A police report details what the official stood accused of. First, that the
primary results were incorrect. Second, that there were “several other”
allegations “that include obstructing poll watchers.”

In July, Brehm lost in the runoff by 32 points. But as party chair, she held the
authority to certify the results. She refused to do so — pointing to the fruits
of her complaint.

“The Texas Attorney General has an active investigation ongoing into the results
of the Primary Election,” Brehm wrote in a press release justifying her
decision. “I Cynthia Brehm, have determined that every aspect of this election
has been severely compromised.”

ProPublica

Read More


Senator Seeks Antitrust Review of Apartment Price-Setting Software

In response to a public records request, Paxton’s office said the investigation
into the elections administrator, Jacquelyn Callanen, is now closed. Brehm and
Callanen did not respond to requests for comment. The winning candidate
ultimately took over Brehm’s post.

At least three suspects in Paxton’s investigations were the top election
officials in their counties, but his probes have also ensnared volunteers. In
2020, Robert Icsezen, a Houston-based attorney and self-described “election
nerd,” volunteered to serve on his county’s signature verification committee,
which is responsible for checking the signatures on mail-in ballots. On Oct. 14,
a poll watcher asked Icsezen to let her into the area where ballots were being
processed, he said. He thought that wasn’t permitted and turned her away. Later
that morning, he received a call from a local official, who told him the
secretary of state’s office said he needed to let the poll watcher in. The woman
never returned, Icsezen said.

Shortly thereafter, an officer in Paxton’s election police unit contacted
Icsezen. Assuming it was all a misunderstanding, Icsezen agreed to speak with
him, he said.

Eight months later, Paxton’s office brought the case before a grand jury and
unsuccessfully tried to indict Icsezen for obstructing a poll watcher, records
show.

“I have four kids,” Icsezen told ProPublica. “There could have been cops coming
to my door to cuff me and take me away.”

He will not volunteer to help in another election, he said.

Do you have information about “election integrity” units that we should know?
Reporters Cassandra Jaramillo and Josh Kaplan can be reached via email at
cassandra.jaramillo@propublica.org or joshua.kaplan@propublica.org, or via
Signal at 469-606-9665 or 734-834-9383.

Lynn Dombek contributed research.

Filed under —

 * Democracy

Cassandra Jaramillo

Cassandra Jaramillo is a Reporter with ProPublica.

Joshua Kaplan

Josh Kaplan is a reporter at ProPublica.

 * Mail joshua.kaplan@propublica.org
 * Twitter @js_kaplan
 * Message 734-834-9383
 * Lock Signal: 734-834-9383


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