Tag Archives: drivers licenses

So about that DPS delay in notifying the victims of the credential stuffing attack

Here’s their explanation. [DPS Director Steve] McCraw said DPS officials kept the news under wraps to avoid jeopardizing the agency’s investigation, including efforts to arrest the fraudsters who organized the scheme. The explanation came in response to questioning from state … Continue reading

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DPS victimized by credential stuffing attack

That’s the technical term for this. The Texas Department of Public Safety was duped into shipping at least 3,000 Texas driver’s licenses to a Chinese organized crime group that targeted Asian Texans, DPS Director Steve McCraw told a Texas House … Continue reading

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Ken Paxton’s hatred of LGBTQ+ people continues unabated

Item #1: Texas attorney general’s office sought state data on transgender Texans. Employees at the Texas Department of Public Safety in June received a sweeping request from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office: to compile a list of individuals who … Continue reading

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We have a final count of rejected mail ballots

About one in eight got canned. That’s a lot. The votes of more than 24,000 Texans who tried to cast ballots by mail were thrown out in the March primary — a dramatic increase in rejected ballots in the first … Continue reading

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Still more on the mail ballot rejections

The Associated Press moves the ball forward now that the votes have been canvassed. Texas threw out mail votes at an abnormally high rate during the nation’s first primary of 2022, rejecting nearly 23,000 ballots outright under tougher voting rules … Continue reading

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More data about mail ballot rejections

Keep it coming. Thousands of Texans who attempted to vote by mail in the March primary were disenfranchised in the state’s first election conducted under a new Republican voting law. The state’s largest counties saw a significant spike in the … Continue reading

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Don’t expect the absentee ballot fiasco to improve

Things are working as planned. Signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September, the voting law known as Senate Bill 1 contained an array of new restrictions on the state’s voting process and narrowed local control of elections. Among … Continue reading

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Lots of mail ballot applications are being rejected now

This is a feature, not a bug. Hundreds of Texans seeking to vote by mail in the upcoming March primary elections are seeing their applications for ballots rejected by local election offices trying to comply with stricter voting rules enacted … Continue reading

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How’s that online voter registration thing going?

Pretty well, it seems. So well, perhaps, that the state of Texas doesn’t want to tell you how well. Since a federal judge forced Texas nearly a year and a half ago to offer limited online voter registration, 1.5 million … Continue reading

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A kinder, gentler voter purge

How nice. Two years after Texas officials fumbled an effort to double-check the voting rolls on a hunt for non-citizens — and instead threatened the voting rights of nearly 60,000 eligible Texans — similar efforts to purge non-citizen voters are … Continue reading

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Final settlement in Motor Voter 2.0 lawsuit

From Democracy Docket: Last Friday, individual Texan voters, the Texas Democratic Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) settled a five-year long lawsuit with Texas over its noncompliance with the National Voter Registration … Continue reading

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Cybersecurity insurance for TxDOT

Not an optional thing these days. Pending final approval from the legislature, the Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend about $100,000 annually on cybersecurity insurance aimed at repaying the state should it incur expenses related to loss of business … Continue reading

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More on DPS and data protection

A followup from the DMN about that data breach involving every drivers license number you’ve ever had. Some other states do not sell [drivers’ license] data, but Texas does. State lawmakers could change the law in their 2021 session. I … Continue reading

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DPS needs to do better with data protection

Oops. You’ve been hacked. We’ve all been hacked. No one else has said it, but The Watchdog will. This is likely the largest and one of the more significant data breaches ever to hit Texans. About 27.7 million Texas driver’s … Continue reading

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Hey, look, it’s online voter registration!

And they said it couldn’t be done. When Jarrod Stringer updated his driver’s license address in 2014, the Texas Department of Public Safety website asked if he wanted to register to vote. He clicked yes and thought he was registered. … Continue reading

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Plaintiffs prevail again in Motor Voter Lawsuit 2.0

Same result as before, this time without the technicality that got the first try thrown out on appeal. A persistent Texas voter, twice thwarted when he tried registering to vote while renewing his driver’s license online, has for the second … Continue reading

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The next round in the Motor Voter 2.0 lawsuit

Score one for the plaintiffs. Finding Texas in violation of federal law, a U.S. judge gave civil rights lawyers a small win Thursday — fueling hopes of a wider victory in a continuing fight over the state’s online voter registration … Continue reading

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“Motor voter” lawsuit 2.0

Try, try again, this time hopefully addressing the cause of the Fifth Court of Appeals’ rejection of the first lawsuit. The first time former English professor Jarrod Stringer was told he couldn’t vote in a Texas election, he sued. A … Continue reading

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Fifth Circuit overturns “motor voter” lawsuit verdict

Bummer. Totally expected and completely on brand for the Fifth Circuit, but a bummer nonetheless. A federal appeals court has overturned a previous ruling that could have opened the door to online voter registration in Texas. In a Wednesday court … Continue reading

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It was Abbott all along

Who was behind that botched voter purge that caused now-former Secretary of State David Whitley to not get confirmed by the Senate? Greg Abbott, that’s who. Two top officials at the Department of Public Safety named Gov. Greg Abbott’s office … Continue reading

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The SOS voter purge may be over, but Ken Paxton is unaccounted for

Keep an eye on this. After the judge approved the settlement, the original list of voters was scrapped. Under the agreement, Texas officials now will only flag names of people who have said they’re not citizens after they have registered … Continue reading

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A closer look at how Texas strongly discourages voting

Well, it strongly discourages some people from voting. Julieta Garibay, a native of Mexico City, was brought to Texas by her mother when she was 12. For 26 years, she was told to assimilate and stay quiet so people wouldn’t … Continue reading

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Settlement officially reached in lawsuits over bogus SOS advisory

Great news. Three months after first questioning the citizenship status of almost 100,000 registered voters, the Texas secretary of state has agreed to end a review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens that was flawed from the start. The … Continue reading

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Congressional Republicans seek to halt SOS voter purge inquiry

I know, I’m as shocked as you are. Republicans are challenging the authority of a U.S. House panel to investigate the Texas effort to purge thousands of suspected non-citizens from voter rolls, contending in letters Monday that a recent request … Continue reading

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Failing upward

Must be nice. The day after David Whitley took office as Texas secretary of state on Dec. 17, he received a 49 percent pay raise thanks to his friend and political patron, Gov. Greg Abbott. In a Dec. 18 letter to the Legislative … Continue reading

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LULAC settles its SOS lawsuit

Good news. The state of Texas is ending a program to purge voters it claimed were noncitizens in order to settle lawsuits brought by civil rights groups over the plan. The deal was reached following a meeting Monday in San … Continue reading

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Congress to investigate bogus SOS advisory

Elections do have consequences. The U.S. House’s main investigative committee has opened an inquiry into the Texas secretary of state’s review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens. In letters sent to top Texas officials on Thursday, U.S. Reps. Elijah … Continue reading

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Of course some voters were removed by that bogus SOS advisory

No one should be surprised by this. Fourteen Texas voters caught up in the secretary of state’s botched review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens had their registrations canceled but have since been reinstated, state officials told a federal … Continue reading

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Still a “no” on Whitley

As it should be. Senate Democrats still pledge to block the confirmation of embattled Secretary of State David Whitley, even as a top Texas law enforcement official is taking blame for major errors in a list of suspected non-citizen voters. … Continue reading

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McCraw falls on his sword

He’s a good company man, I’ll give him that much. After being rebuked by Gov. Greg Abbott for the state’s botched review of the voter rolls, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety took “full responsibility” Tuesday for … Continue reading

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SOS screws up again

Are you kidding me? The list of missteps in the Texas secretary of state’s review of the voter rolls for supposed noncitizens grew again Monday, when the office inadvertently added additional people to its already flawed list of voters flagged … Continue reading

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Blaming DPS

Meet your new scapegoat for the SOS non-citizen voter advisory fiasco. Amid the fallout surrounding his administration’s botched review of the voter rolls, Gov. Greg Abbott has picked a side. Who’s to blame for the state’s mistaken challenge to the … Continue reading

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Senate committee advances Whitley nomination

I’ll take Pointless Wastes of Time for $200, Alex. A Texas Senate committee voted Thursday to advance the nomination of Texas Secretary of State David Whitley — the most forward motion he’s made in weeks in a stalled nomination that … Continue reading

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Judge blocks any voter purges from the SOS advisory

Good. Let’s hope this lasts. In a major victory for voting rights groups, a federal judge has ordered that no Texas county should purge suspected noncitizen voters from the rolls or issue letters demanding that they prove their citizenship “without … Continue reading

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