Bexar County Moves Forward on "Voter Fraud" Investigation

The San Antonio Express-News has an update today about an ongoing investigation into allegations of voter fraud. This is one of those cases that depends on a chain of circumstance and reasoning that often does not hold together.

According to the story, the investigation was set in motion after Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen cross-checked voter lists against a list of people who'd declined jury duty summons on the ground they were not citizens. Apparently, she found 330 people who claimed non-citizenship but were registered to vote. Apparently, 41 of those people had actually voted in elections going back to 2001.

People who receive jury summons must fill out a juror questionnaire (a sample can be found here) that, among other things, asks if the recipient is a U.S. citizen. After filling out the questionnaire, the potential juror must sign it, stating that "I CERTIFY THAT ALL ANSWERS ARE TRUE AND CORRECT."

If the potential juror indicates he or she is not a U.S. citizen, s/he is disqualified. Obviously, no one can legally claim to be a non-citizen as a ruse for getting out of jury duty, but some citizens probably do.

On voter registration applications, the first question is "Are you a U.S. citizen?" The registrant must sign the application after acknowledging that "giving false information to procure a voter registration is perjury, and a crime under state and federal law."

When, in the hope of proving "voter fraud" exists, eager county administrators double-check jury summons responses against voter files, they may get inconsistent answers. At a minimum, the person who's registered to vote and then declined jury duty on citizenship grounds is lying on at least one of the forms. The question of whether voter fraud exists, however, is more complicated, since they must prove the voter is a non-citizen who actually voted.

While it looks sexy to say 330 registered voters said they were non-citizens in order to escape jury duty, much more needs to be shown to prove intentional "voter fraud." That's why, in spite of the hullabaloo to the contrary, relatively few of these cases have been prosecuted.