Paxton: Review of Harris County voting claims ‘won’t be resolved by the time the election is over’

Texas Attorney General and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton said the investigation into claims of felons voting in Harris County will not be resolved by the time “the election is over” on Tuesday.

Paxton’s office announced Saturday it had arrested an undisclosed number of convicted felons who had voted in the midterms. The attorney general said Tuesday on Fox News the investigation won’t be completed by the election but that voters should know it is being addressed.

“My Election Integrity Unit is actively investigating additional reports of election crimes,” Paxton said in a press release. “We will continue working to protect the lawful votes of Texans.”

The attorney general’s office said the claims stemmed from a concerned citizen who filed a report and provided “open-source” information to support the allegation. In conjunction with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Paxton’s office said, it confirmed the voter’s criminal status and made the arrests.

Whether a convicted felon can legally vote is governed by state law. In two states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, felons never lose the right to vote. In 24 states and territories, felons can vote once they are released from prison, 15 allow felons to vote once they are off parole or probation and 13 either never allow felons to vote or require them to finish their sentence and apply for their voting status to be restored.

In the Lone Star State, felons are eligible to vote once they have completed the entirety of their sentence, including parole or probation. A local news outlet reported Monday that two men had been arrested and confirmed their active status under probation.

“We’ll be pursuing this, it won’t be resolved by the time the election is over, but at least people will know that my office took care of election issues that were fraudulent or people voting that shouldn’t be voting,” Paxton said Tuesday.