Texas Secretary of State David Whitley, who has yet to be confirmed in the position by the Texas Senate, recently announced his office had identified 95,000 registered voters as non-citizens and that 58,000 had cast a ballot over the last two decades. The dubious analysis used in selecting voters to purge from county voting rolls was an example of Whitley’s gross mismanagement of our state’s voter rolls. David Whitley is a danger to the integrity of our elections.

The list of voters Whitley flagged does not even stand under even minimal scrutiny. In less than a week after the advisory was released, nearly half of the flagged citizens were removed from the purge list as they had already proved their citizenship to the Texas Department of Public Safety. But a great deal of the damage has already been done. At least eight major counties sent out letters challenging people on this list to prove their citizenship or be removed from the rolls.

Every day all over the state, county elections officials examining the lists are finding a huge majority of the voters are clearly U.S. citizens. In one county in central Texas, the election administrator found that literally 100% of the list was incorrect. A demand of citizenship proof is nothing more than an act to intimidate and discriminate against foreign-born Americans.

David Whitley has made it clear that he cares more about headlines than accuracy. At best his irresponsible action was negligent, and at worst deliberately designed to intimidate lawful voters. This flawed attempt at creating hysteria over illegal voting makes it clear that Whitley is not fit to hold the highest office in the state responsible for conducting Texas’ elections.

In just his first two months, Secretary Whitley demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the people’s fundamental right to participate in our government. The Senate must demand a Secretary of State that does due diligence before threatening the voting rights of tens of thousands of lawful Texans.

Any Secretary of State nominee must be fair, independent, and committed to protecting the rights, freedoms and legal safeguards of all Americans. Whether by gross incompetence or deliberate attempt suppress votes, this action caused confusion and uncertainty among county officials who are already overworked. David Whitley does not meet any conceivable standard of professional responsibility or accountability to hard-working Texans and must not be confirmed.

Tell your Texas Senator to Purge Whitley by affirmatively blocking the confirmation, and removing him from office.