Texas’ Paxton faces new voter registration questions, adding to his list of controversies

On Capitol Hill, Democratic and Republican officials may not agree on much, but there’s at least one area of common ground: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is one scandal-plagued Senate candidate.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said in May that Paxton “could reasonably be indicted for a felony.” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has described Paxton as “an ethically challenged individual.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina added, “To call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.”

That his list of controversies continues to grow isn’t helping matters for the GOP’s Senate nominee in the Lone Star State.

When it comes to Paxton’s real estate holdings, the Republican has already faced difficult questions about why he and his now-estranged wife declared three separate homes as their primary residence in mortgage documents, a practice his party has characterized as scandalous and potentially criminal.

This week, a related problem emerged. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported:

Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years, including in May’s runoff that made him the Republican nominee for U.S. senator, according to records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.

This might not seem especially notable, except for the fact that Paxton, just months earlier, reminded Texans that under state law, “You must register to vote using the address where you reside.”

If the latest reporting (which has not been independently verified by MS NOW) is correct, the state attorney general failed to heed his own warning. In fact, the report added, “Three election lawyers told the news organizations that Paxton may have violated the same Texas laws his office cautioned about in its news release.”

That said, the state attorney general appears unlikely to open an investigation into himself.

The Texas Republican did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ProPublica and the Tribune, although his campaign spokesperson issued a statement saying that Paxton has been “a national leader on election integrity, with a long record of defending Texas elections.” She added that “attempting to insinuate otherwise and tear him down with a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story is not real reporting.”

At least so far, neither Paxton nor his team has offered any evidence to suggest the underlying allegations are baseless or false, and they’ve pointed to no inaccuracies in the reporting.

Given the Senate hopeful’s long list of scandals, he really didn’t need a new problem. With 17 weeks remaining before Election Day, he appears to have one anyway.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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