Texas officials have reportedly indicated that they incorrectly identified some registered voters whose citizenship status they flagged for review last week.
The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday that officials in five of the state’s 15 most populous counties said they were contacted by the secretary of state’s office alerting them that some of the voters flagged for review should not have been listed.
The secretary of state’s office originally identified roughly 95,000 individuals to review their citizenship status. The office said in its initial announcement Friday that 58,000 had cast a ballot in at least one election from 1996 to 2018.
The identified individuals provided some form of documentation when obtaining an identification card that showed they were not citizens, The Texas Tribune reported, but some may have been naturalized in the time since.
President TrumpDonald John TrumpGary Cohn says Trump trade adviser the only economist in world who believes in tariffs House transportation committee chairman threatens to subpoena Boeing, FAA communication Pentagon sets new limits on transgender service members MORE seized on the initial report, claiming it showed “rampant” voter fraud” and was proof of the need for voter ID laws. The president has in the past made unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud.
The Tribune reported Tuesday that the secretary of state’s office had called to correct the figures after it incorrectly included for review some voters who submitted their voter registration forms at the Texas Department of Public Safety offices.
It’s unclear how many counties total received calls or how many individuals will be removed from the list. The Texas Tribune reported officials in Harris, Travis, Fort Bend, Collin and Williamson counties each said they received calls that some individuals should not be listed.
Douglas Ray, a special assistant county attorney in Harris County, told The Texas Tribune that a “substantial number” of the 29,822 voters flagged in his county are now being marked as citizens.
A spokesman for the secretary of state told The Hill that the state was giving information to counties as “part of the process of ensuring no eligible voters were impacted by any list maintenance activity.”
“This is to ensure that any registered voters who provided proof of citizenship at the time they registered to vote will not be required to provide proof of citizenship as part of the counties’ examination,” the spokesman said.
Updated: 4:38 p.m.