This Trump supporter was flagged as a foreigner and kicked off Texas voter rolls – ProPublica

Mary Howard-Elley passionately believes that illegal immigration in the US is a serious problem that only former President Donald Trump can solve. He says continuing the border wall and promises of mass deportations will make the country safer.

He agrees with Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats are opening borders to allow non-citizens to vote, fearing it could ultimately cost him the election.

Howard-Elley didn’t pay much attention when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fueled that narrative by announcing that the state had removed thousands of alleged noncitizens from its rolls, claiming some of them had voted in the past.

Then the US citizen found out that she was among them.

The elections office in Montgomery County, north of Houston, sent Howard-Elley a letter in late January saying she had been flagged after she indicated in response to a grand jury summons that she was not a U.S. citizen. The letter states that she has 30 days to provide proof of citizenship, otherwise she will be removed from the voter rolls.

The retired Transportation Security Administration agent was confused as to how the county could come to such a conclusion. And she was furious at the thought that anyone would question the citizenship of a former federal employee with “the whitest name you could possibly have.”

“Who allows people to do this to citizens of the United States? I understand we have an immigration problem, but come on,” Howard-Elley said in an interview.

The 52-year-old is disputing the county’s claim that she responded to a summons for jury duty, saying she is not a citizen. Instead, Howard-Elley said, she called and asked to be excused from jury duty because of caring responsibilities for her three grandchildren.

The Montgomery County Circuit Clerk’s Office, which organizes grand jury duty, did not respond to repeated questions and denied a request to make public Howard-Elley’s response to the grand jury summons, saying it was exempt from disclosure.

Regardless of how she was marked as a non-citizen, Howard-Elley wanted to make sure she could vote. She ordered several copies of her certified Louisiana birth certificate and confirmed receipt with an election clerk. She thought the matter was solved.

However, Howard-Elley’s registration was not reinstated, making her the tenth U.S. citizen identified by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat to be delisted as a potential non-U.S. citizen. News organizations tracked them down as part of the investigation which concluded that Abbott’s claims that the state had removed more than 6,500 foreign nationals were likely overstated and, in some cases, false.

The 10 U.S. citizens who were delisted represented a variety of racial and political backgrounds, and most were removed as a result of human error.

Abbott’s press release provided fodder for Republicans, warning that foreigners could vote en masse and influence the outcome of the election, though experts say such cases are extremely rare.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the federal government last weekclaiming that the Department of Homeland Security refused to help the state check the citizenship status of some registered voters. The federal agency offers states access to a database that can be used to verify immigration status, but Paxton argued that it is insufficient and requires a fee for each verification. Ten other states use the database for voting purposes.

Neither Abbott nor Paxton responded to questions for this story. DHS has not filed a response to the attorney general’s lawsuit in federal court.

The Howard-Elley case shows how eligible voters can be removed from the voter rolls and how difficult it is to get back on the rolls.

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She didn’t realize her registration had been canceled until reporters called her this month. Darla Brooks, the Voter Registration Manager for Montgomery County, told both Howard-Elley and news organizations that she was not reinstated in March because her birth certificate arrived after the 30-day period she was given to prove citizenship. .

On Oct. 14, Brooks said Howard-Elley also missed the deadline to register for this year’s election and would not be eligible to vote.

The election official was wrong.

Many voting rights lawyers have pointed to a state law This means counties should immediately restore voter registrations that were wrongly canceled. Brooks initially told reporters the law did not apply to Howard-Elley because the county followed proper procedures in removing her.

But when news organizations asked the same question of the secretary of state, who provides districts with guidance on implementing election laws, the answer was different.

Agency consulting for 2021 instructs counties to immediately reinstate voters removed for failure to comply with the notice once they provide proof of citizenship. They can even be returned to the polling place on Election Day.

Less than two hours after news organizations sent the secretary of state’s advisory to Montgomery County, Howard-Elley returned to the stage.

“I’m sorry that Montgomery County needs to be shown that it follows the law,” Howard-Elley said. She added that in this election it would be the first time in over 30 years that she did not vote for president. “I just hope they never do this to anyone again because it’s not fair.”

Suzie Harvey, Montgomery County’s elections administrator, said her office had never dealt with a situation like Howard-Elley’s, and while she likely saw the recommendation when it was issued, she had forgotten about the specific guidelines. She said her office worked quickly to reinstate Howard-Elley after news organizations reported the recommendation, and she is pleased Howard-Elley will be able to vote.

“It would be incredibly tragic,” Harvey said.

Not every voter has Howard-Elley’s persistence or news organizations asking persistent questions about how their case was handled.

“Voting should not be so difficult that you have to be a lawyer or have legal skills to vote,” said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Perales said it would take the “heroic efforts” of the average voter to examine voting rights and advocate for the restoration of voter registration.

Even then, the decision will depend on how election officials in their district interpret the rules and guidelines.

Three county election officials gave different answers when asked whether they would reinstate a voter in Howard-Elley’s situation, though all stressed they would do their best to follow the law.

One of them said the voter should be reinstated. The other two said they would likely reinstate a voter after the registration deadline only if the district made some mistake.

These differences give “voters in some counties less rights than voters in others,” said Emily Eby French, policy director at Common Cause Texas, a nonprofit that advocates for voting access.

Howard-Elley said she was concerned about how close she came to losing her ability to vote. Howard-Elley said if reporters hadn’t called her, she might have been rejected at the ballot box.

She said she was concerned about whether other eligible voters were among those flagged as foreigners, and that Abbott should check to see if more U.S. citizens were among them. The longtime Republican said state and county officials must be held accountable to prevent more U.S. citizens from being mistakenly expelled.

“The system is very flawed,” Howard-Elley said. “I’m really sad that we find ourselves in this situation. You would think that in 2024 we would not have such problems.”

He plans to vote for Trump.