{"id":257661,"date":"2026-04-20T07:41:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/257661\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T07:41:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:41:38","slug":"texas-counties-subpoenaed-by-dhs-for-registration-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/257661\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas counties subpoenaed by DHS for registration applications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas\u2019 free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

At least three Texas counties this week either received or were told they would soon receive administrative subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The department is seeking detailed records about some individual voters, including their registration applications and voter history, though counties don\u2019t yet know which ones. <\/p>\n

The subpoenas appear to be linked to a series of efforts by the Trump administration to verify the citizenship of registered voters. In December, Texas turned over the state\u2019s voter roll<\/a> to the Justice Department. The transfer included voters\u2019 identifiable information such as dates of birth, driver\u2019s license numbers, and partial social security numbers. It did not include, however, voters\u2019 registration applications or signatures \u2014 the state does not have access to that information, which is kept by county voter registrars. <\/p>\n

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Lubbock County\u2019s elections administrator, Roxzine Stinson, said she met with a Homeland Security representative who informed her she would soon receive a subpoena seeking additional information for at least 10 voters, and potentially up to 30. Stinson said she\u2019ll seek guidance from the county\u2019s legal department on how to respond. <\/p>\n

The Homeland Security representative told Stinson \u201call 254 counties will be contacted,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Election officials in Brazos County received a subpoena by email this week, Trudy Hancock, the county\u2019s elections administrator, confirmed to Votebeat. Hancock said the subpoena specifically requests voter registration records, including voter registration applications, signatures, and voter history, but doesn\u2019t list the names of individual voters. She said she\u2019s asking for legal advice on how to respond \u201cbecause the request is open-ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzie Harvey, the election administrator in Montgomery County confirmed she has also received a subpoena that was delivered in person, but similarly to Hancock, it isn\u2019t specific about which voters\u2019 records it\u2019s seeking. <\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the subpoenas Friday. The Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office declined to comment on whether it has received a subpoena from DHS but Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson, said the office is aware that some counties are receiving them.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has aggressively sought to obtain voter roll data from the states, requesting unredacted versions that include voters\u2019 personally identifying information, such as driver\u2019s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. So far, the U.S. Department of Justice has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia for declining to provide it.<\/p>\n

The federal government has also urged states to check their voter rolls against a Homeland Security database, known as SAVE, that it overhauled to more easily check voter rolls for potential noncitizens. <\/p>\n

Texas did so and asked counties to investigate 2,724 voters flagged as potential noncitizens<\/a>. Counties have found at least some of those voters to be citizens, including some who had already provided proof of citizenship<\/a> to the state. Watchdog groups have criticized the database\u2019s accuracy. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, CNN reported<\/a> that the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security had reached an agreement to give DHS the voter roll data obtained from states. <\/p>\n

Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Marymount University who advised President Joe Biden\u2019s administration on democracy and voting rights, said that if the agency is investigating potential noncitizens who have registered to vote, it makes sense that it might want additional information and records. To obtain that info, though, the subpoenas would need to request information about specific voters. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d want the actual voter registration form, the actual mail ballot envelope if there was one, etc, to see if the individual falsely swore they were a citizen,\u201d Levitt said. He added that open-ended subpoenas such as the ones Hancock and Harvey received seem \u201cvery weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Chris McGinn, the executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said the organization recognizes the importance of federal oversight \u201cwithin its proper constitutional bounds,\u201d and is \u201ccommitted to ensuring that any such requests comply with applicable law and respect the principles of federalism that govern election administration in Texas.\u201d <\/p>\n

The organization is recommending that any county election officials receiving a subpoena from the federal government consult with their county attorney or legal representation before taking any action. <\/p>\n

Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[409,168,27,29,28,8839],"class_list":{"0":"post-257661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-lubbock","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-voter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}