[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.]
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THEY WERE TRYING TO HELP RUN ELECTIONS. THEN THEY GOT CRIMINALLY
INVESTIGATED.  
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Cassandra Jaramillo and Joshua Kaplan
November 3, 2022
Propublica
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_ 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. _

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

 

_ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign
up for The Big Story newsletter
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to receive stories like this one in your inbox_.

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.

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
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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
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for seven years, has touted his eagerness to pursue election-related
crimes
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He created a unit dedicated to doing so five years ago, long before
so-called election integrity units
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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
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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
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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
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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
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as conspiracy theories
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and physical threats
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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
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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.”

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.

* elections
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* texas
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* Politics
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* Criminalization
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* Election workers
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