(TEXAS TRIBUNE) – Mary Howard-Elley firmly believes that illegal immigration to the United States is a critical problem that only former President Donald Trump can solve. She says maintaining the border wall and promised mass expulsions will make the country safer.

She agrees with Trump’s unfounded claims that Democrats are opening the 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 helped fuel this narrative by announcing that the state had removed thousands of so-called non-citizens from its rolls, saying some had already voted.

The American citizen then learned that she was among them.

The retired Transportation Security Administration agent didn’t understand how the county could come to that conclusion. And she seethed at the idea of ​​anyone questioning the citizenship of a former federal employee with “the whitest name possible.”

The election office in Montgomery County, just north of Houston, sent Howard-Elley a letter in late January saying she was reported after she indicated she was not a U.S. citizen in response to a jury summons. . She had 30 days to provide the county with proof of citizenship or she would be removed from the voter rolls, according to the letter.

“Who allows people to do this to American citizens? I understand we have a problem with immigration, but come on now,” Howard-Elley said in an interview.

The 52-year-old disputes the county’s assertion that she responded to the jury summons by stating she was not a citizen. Instead, Howard-Elley said, she called and asked to be excused from jury duty because of guardianship obligations for three of her grandchildren.

The Montgomery County Clerk’s Office, which conducts jury duty, did not respond to repeated questions and denied a public records request for Howard-Elley’s response to the jury summons, saying she was exempt from disclosure.

Regardless of how she was flagged 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 office employee. She thought the matter was resolved.

But Howard-Elley’s registration was not reinstated, making her the 10th U.S. citizen identified by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat who was removed from the rolls as a potential non-citizen. News agencies found them part of an investigation which found that Abbott’s claims that the state was deporting more than 6,500 non-citizens were likely exaggerated and, in some cases, false.

The 10 U.S. citizens who were removed from the rolls represented diverse racial and political backgrounds, and most were removed as a result of human error.

Abbott’s press release fueled Republicans warning that noncitizens could vote in large numbers and influence elections, although experts say such cases are extremely rare.

Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton sued the federal government last weekclaiming the Department of Homeland Security has refused to help the state verify the citizenship status of some registered voters. The federal agency offers states access to a database that can be used to check immigration status, but Paxton argued it was inadequate and required a fee for each check. Ten other states use the database for voting-related 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 rolls – and how difficult it can be to get back on.

She didn’t realize her registration had been canceled until reporters called her this month. Darla Brooks, Montgomery County voter registration manager, told Howard-Elley and news organizations that she was not reinstated in March because her birth certificate arrived after the 30-year deadline. days allotted to him to prove his citizenship.

On October 14, Brooks said Howard-Elley had also missed the registration deadline for this year’s election and would not be able to vote.

The election official was wrong.

Several lawyers specializing in voting rights have highlighted a State Law which states that counties should immediately reinstate voter registrations that were wrongly canceled. Brooks initially told reporters that the law did not apply to Howard-Elley because the county followed proper procedures in firing her.

But when news organizations asked the same question of the secretary of state’s office, which provides counties with guidance on implementing election laws, the response was different.

A 2021 agency review requires counties to immediately reinstate voters kicked out for failing to respond to a notice as soon as they present proof of citizenship. They can even be reinstated at a polling station on election day.

Less than two hours after news organizations sent the secretary of state’s notice to Montgomery County, Howard-Elley was back on the list.

“I’m sorry that Montgomery County has to be shown the law to follow it,” Howard-Elley said. She added that this election would have been the first time in more than 30 years that she had failed to vote for president. “I just hope they never do this to anyone else again because it’s not fair.”

Montgomery County Elections Administrator Suzie Harvey said her office has never had to deal with a situation like Howard-Elley’s and while she probably saw the notice when it was been published, she had forgotten the specific guidelines. She said her office worked quickly to reinstate Howard-Elley when news organizations reported the notice and that she was happy Howard-Elley could vote.

“It would have been extremely tragic,” Harvey said.

Not every voter has the tenacity of Howard-Elley, nor the news organizations that ask persistent questions about how their case was handled.

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

Perales said it would take “heroic efforts” on the part of the average voter to research voting laws and advocate for their registration to be reinstated.

Even then, the decision will depend on how their county election officials interpret the laws and guidelines.

Three county election officials gave different answers to the question of whether they would reinstate a voter in Howard-Elley’s situation, while emphasizing that they would do their best to follow the law.

One said the voter should be reinstated. The other two said they would likely reinstate the voter after the registration deadline only if the county had erred in some way.

These differences give “voters in some counties fewer rights than voters in other counties,” said Emily Eby French, political director of Common Cause Texas, a nonprofit that advocates for access to voting. vote.

Howard-Elley said she was troubled by how close she came to losing her ability to vote. If reporters hadn’t called her, Howard-Elley said, she could have been turned away at the polls.

She said she was concerned about whether other eligible voters were among those classified as non-citizens and that Abbott should check to see if there were more U.S. citizens among them. The lifelong Republican said state and county officials must be held accountable to ensure more U.S. citizens are not mistakenly deported.

“The system is very broken,” Howard-Elley said. “I’m really sad that we’re in a situation like this. You would think that in 2024 we wouldn’t have problems like this.

She plans to vote for Trump.

How to dispute your deletion

If your voter registration is canceled because you did not respond to a letter attempting to confirm your citizenship, here is what you can do:

• Contact your county elections office before going to the polls. Show proof of your citizenship and request reinstatement.
• You can also share this 2021 advisory from the Texas Secretary of State’s Office on voter re-entry.
• Common forms of documentation include a U.S. passport or certified birth certificate. See the full list of acceptable proofs of citizenship in the advice.
• If you only find out when you arrive at the polling station that you must show proof of citizenship, this review still requires election officials to reinstate you immediately after you do so.

Contact Texas Secretary of State’s Office for additional help.

This article was co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, and with Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization that reports on voting access and election administration.

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