Bexar County Court approves plan to mail out voter applications

Bexar County Commissioners Court on Monday approved a plan to mail voter-registration applications to residents even though Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to sue if the county does so. The court's 3-1 vote — made with a single abstention — cleared the way to create a no-bid contract for tech firm Civic Government Solutions (CGS) to send applications and postage-paid return envelopes to people who are likely to be unregistered to vote in the county but are nonetheless eligible to cast ballots. CGS, a startup, uses a priority database of state records to reach people such as college students, transferred military personnel and those without drivers licenses — all groups frequently overlooked when political parties and others do voter-registration outreach.