Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Voter-Residency Controversy Amid Election-Integrity Push

Two weeks before the 2024 primary, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a tip line for voter fraud and warned that voting from a false address is illegal. Remains registered in Collin County while a trust lists a Denton County home as his residence since February. He voted in six elections from Collin address, including the March primary and May runoff, securing his Senate nomination.

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Texas law makes voting from an ineligible residence a second-degree felony, punishable by 20 years in prison. Prosecutors rarely bring such cases because intent must be proven and residency is judged by factors. Paxton’s office previously pursued a 2018 Edinburg case, arresting nine voters for false addresses; the charges were later dismissed.

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Paxton’s office called him a “national leader on election integrity” and dismissed the reporting as a “baseless, lie-filled tabloid” story, offering no specifics. Madison Cercy reiterated his record defending Texas elections. The attorney general’s office answered media inquiries with a brief email on June 24, while James Talarico’s campaign declined comment.

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Beth Stevens said intent is required for prosecution and that temporary absences are permissible. David Becker noted Paxton’s separation from his wife undermines any claim of intent to return to the Collin home. Clark Birdsall called the situation “especially egregious” for a law-enforcement chief, and a Texas election-trust nonprofit called Paxton’s alleged non-compliance “particularly problematic” given his enforcement role.

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Reporters found an envelope addressed to “Warren Paxton” in the Denton mailbox and a neighbor reported seeing him in gated community.

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Voter rolls list Paxton at his former Collin address, while property records and a trust show a Denton residence. Neither Paxton’s campaign nor the Denton trustee answered inquiries.

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• “Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of a thriving republic, and with the authority granted to my office by the Legislature, we will stop at nothing to uncover and stop any illegal voting activity,” — Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General

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• “attempting to insinuate otherwise and tear him down with a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story is not real reporting.” — Madison Cercy, Campaign Spokesperson

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• “especially egregious that someone such as Ken Paxton appears he’s not conforming to the law.” — Clark Birdsall, Attorney

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• “You would think that somebody who’s going through this would learn a little bit of humility that lots of things which look on their face, like technical violations of the law, are usually explained by totally ordinary things,” — Ekow Yankah, University of Michigan law professor

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State election officials have not opened a formal probe, but the Texas Ethics Commission and local prosecutors could act if evidence of intentional false residency emerges, making the issue a focal point in Paxton’s Senate campaign.

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