13 Investigates looks into what has been to sent to Texas AG's voter fraud tip line
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Wayne Schneider said he was surprised when he received a letter from his local tax office saying someone in his household wasn't registered to vote.
That's because the letter was addressed to his mother and included a registration form with her name on it, despite the fact that she's no longer alive.
"It's been 16 years since my mother passed away, and this is the first time we've ever gotten anything like this," Schneider of Manor told 13 Investigates. "My wife said, you know, we really ought to report that, so give it to me, I'll take care of it."
On Sept. 30, Schneider's wife emailed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's illegal voting tip line at llegalvoting@oag.texas.gov
Paxton launched the email tip line on Aug. 28, saying, "significant growth of the noncitizen population in Texas and a pattern of partisan efforts to illegally weaponize voter registration and the voting process to manipulate electoral outcomes have created urgent risks to local, state, and federal elections."
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, lists just six criminal convictions since 2020 in Texas on its election fraud database.
For context, more than 11.3 million Texans voted in the 2020 presidential election.
"We have a hard time getting people to vote. The idea that there are people out there voting who shouldn't be voting or engaging in illegal activities seems to be - the word remote would be an overstatement," Bob Stein, a professor of political science at Rice University, said.
13 Investigates wanted to know who is emailing the tip line Paxton set up and if any voter fraud has been identified as a result of it.
We received more than 1,000 emails to the tip line, most of which were sent in the days after the address was announced. A review of emails shows 74% of them were from individuals trolling and taunting Paxton and his party with insults, some swearing, a few vulgar images, and even more complaints about him.
"So you've started a snitch line?" read the subject line of one email. The text of the email went on to say, "Figures. How about you stop suppressing the vote?"
Hundreds of emails to the tip line contained a nearly decade-old mugshot of Paxton, who was arrested and indicted in 2015 on allegations of felony securities fraud. Just weeks before he was set to face trial earlier this year, prosecutors agreed to drop the charges if Paxton performed 100 hours of community service and paid in restitution, among other conditions.
Of the 1,059 emails we reviewed, 12% were spam-type emails likely from people who signed the tip line up for rewards programs or newsletters at places like Pottery Barn, Victoria Secret, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and LGBTQ Nation.
There were 6% of emails that were hard to make sense of, either because they included broken web links or were written so poorly they were indecipherable.
There were just 3% of residents who appear to believe they have information on illegal voting, though in most cases specific evidence was not provided. Those tips included tipsters sharing the names and addresses of people who they suspect have cast a ballot illegally in the past or will in the future based on supposed conversations with the individuals, hunches, or hearsay.
Another 4% of the emails involved concerns that were not directly related to illegal voting, such as how to remove deceased relatives from the voter rolls or concerns about voter registration booths set up in places they don't think they should be allowed.
There were 15 generic emails from people who were appreciative of an email set up to send tips about illegal voting, though none of those emails included actual tips.
One resident wrote, "Thank you for such an important tool."
But there were far more emails against the tip line, with residents saying things like, "What a waste of my tax $$ you are Ken."
Another person emailed asking, "How many illegal voters have you gotten using this e-mail address vs. how many people have you questioned without cause?" That person sent a second email asking, "How many actual cases of illegal voting have been discovered? It seems like this might just be a way to scare people who can legitimately vote."
13 Investigates didn't receive all of the emails we requested.
In Texas, whenever a government agency believes information can be withheld under Texas law, they submit a letter to the Texas AG's office asking it to rule whether or not the information has to be released under the Texas Public Information Act.
In response to our request, the AG's office sent a letter to another division within the AG's office on Oct. 18 asserting that some of the emails don't have to be publicly released.
"A member of the OAG's law enforcement divisions identified certain e-mails that appear to contain credible allegations of misconduct. Release of these e-mails will interfere with the OAG's investigative interests as well as any potential prosecutions stemming from these investigations," according to the letter from an assistant attorney at the AG's office.
13 Investigates reached out to Paxton's communications team last Friday after receiving that letter and asked them how many investigations into allegations of election-related misconduct have been opened.
We also wanted to know which counties those allegations took place in, the type of allegations they're looking into, and how many tips its tip line has received.
As of Wednesday afternoon, we have not received any response from the AG's office.
Last year, during a speech with The Heritage Foundation, Paxton said he was asked to speak about the "very controversial topic" of voter fraud.
"I'm actually going to say these words. You're not really supposed to say them in American politics anymore. You can get censored. You can be criticized by the media. The words are 'election fraud.' And I'm just going to say them out loud, because it's happening not just in my state, but all over the country," Paxton said during the April 27, 2023 event.
But, that same foundation's database shows just six criminal convictions related to election fraud since 2020 in Texas.
Stein said supporters of the tip line could argue that it instills greater confidence in voters. But, he said, there's no evidence that it actually does.
"The real worry about voter fraud is not the fraud. It doesn't really exist, but if people believe it exists, if people think that elections are not fair, not honest, and they're rigged for one or the other party, then you've got yourself a much more serious problem," Stein said. "It's not just asymmetric. It's not just Republicans. There's plenty of Democrats who don't think elections are conducted fairly."
Schneider said even though he emailed the AG's illegal voting tip line, he doesn't actually suspect any illegal activity related to the tip he sent them about his deceased mother getting mail encouraging her to register to vote.
He said he doesn't think anyone intends to vote in her name, but he would like someone to look into it.
"I think somebody needs to at least take my mother's name off of their roll somewhere. I mean, they had to come up with this somewhere. I don't know where they got it, but somebody needs to check and see where they got that from and delete it," he said.
As of Wednesday, though, Schneider said he never received any kind of follow-up from the AG's office after submitting his concerns last month.
"It would be nice just to find out how this happened and why after 16 years, all of a sudden we received this letter," he said.
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