Elected officials in Texas have repeatedly embraced former President Donald Trump's lies that the 2020 election was "stolen" from him by Democrats engaging in widespread election fraud, even though Trump won the Lone Star State.
Shortly after the 2020 election, the state's Republican legislature passed a severe voter suppression bill designed to widen its Republican margin of victory by targeting communities of color.
Ahead of the deadly failed insurrection carried out by pro-Trump extremists, Texas' far-right Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a bizarre Supreme Court lawsuit against Pennsylvania, urging the Court to throw out its election results. It was near-unanimously thrown out.
Nevertheless, there has been at least one proven case of voter fraud in Texas, and Attorney General Paxton was forced to make good on his promise to pay anyone who came forward with verified allegations of fraud in the state—but it wasn't the fraud for which Paxton was likely hoping.
A Democratic poll worker, Eric Frank, proved that a registered Republican man in his 70s voted twice, prompting Paxton to pay him $25 thousand.
Frank told the Dallas Morning News:
"It's my belief that they were trying to get cases of Democrats doing voter fraud. And that just wasn't the case. This kind of blew up in their face."
Voter fraud is already a statistically insignificant factor in American elections, but a number of fraudulent votes have been cast by Republican voters, like in Texas.
The development generated a wealth of reactions online.
Bout time someone got a payout, we already knew it was mainly republicans https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/255iVCCcJd— Desert Queen\ud83d\udfe1Lovin 420\ud83c\udf2c\ud83d\udfe2 (@Desert Queen\ud83d\udfe1Lovin 420\ud83c\udf2c\ud83d\udfe2) 1634846822
Welp.https://twitter.com/geoffrbennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— Ashton Pittman (@Ashton Pittman) 1634845192
Gotta watch all those fraudulent voters!! Good job to this poll worker. \n\nHint: how about giving a portion to voter enfranchisement causes?https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— Power and Light (@Power and Light) 1634839375
\u201cBut not like thaaaaaat!\u201dhttps://twitter.com/geoffrbennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— Carly GH (@Carly GH) 1634827482
So rich with justice and irony.https://twitter.com/geoffrbennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— Thomas Arthur Nelson (@Thomas Arthur Nelson) 1634823351
People had to laugh.
Bahahahahhaa! Just imagine how pissed off you would be if you donated $25,000 to Patrick's campaign, and he handed it to someone who found evidence of Republican fraud. Delicious.https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— It's Not Me. (@It's Not Me.) 1634823263
AHHHHHHHHHH https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— Anthony Martinez (@Anthony Martinez) 1634832843
OK, that's funny.https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1451174706925690882\u00a0\u2026— Gus (@Gus) 1634834533
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