The fight over voter registration in Texas Democratic-leaning cities is heating up.
In Tuesday, Travis County sued Texas state officials — including right-wing Attorney General Ken Paxton — over his repeated attempts to block the state’s urban counties from registering voters by mail.
“Today, Travis County, once again, fights back,” county attorney Delia Garza told reporters on Tuesday, The Texas Tribune reported . Travis County is home to the state’s capital, Austin.
The countersuit comes in the context of a tightening election — and less than three weeks before the critical Oct. 7 deadline to register Texans to vote.
In the suit, Garza asserts that Paxton and State Secretary of State Jane Nelson are in violation of Title 52 of the Voting Rights Act, which makes it “the duty of the Federal, State, and local governments to promote the exercise of [the] right” to vote.
The Travis countersuit follows three weeks after Paxton sued Travis County itself , alleging that county leadership’s use of a third-party voter registration company violated state law.