Twelve Democrats have said they will vote against David Whitley for Secretary of State. Since two-thirds of the senate is needed to confirm him, that's enough to block his nomination.
"I think his vision of what should happen in that office is different from mine, particularly with respect to the integrity of our election system and encouraging voter participation. I think the events of the last couple of months have undermined my confidence in him to the level that I simply can't confirm,” said Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas Dist. 16).
His decision comes after Whitley’s hearing in the senate. He addressed his office’s flawed rollout list of 95,000 suspected non-citizens registered to vote.
Whitley called it at effort to ensure the accuracy of the state's voter rolls. Others have called it an attempt to intimidate and suppress legitimate voters.
"I will readily level with you that we can always improve the process. But the data is what the data is, and we were confident that that was the best data that we could get from DPS," said Whitley at a Feb. 7 hearing.
The nominations committee still has not voted him to the senate floor for a full vote. If the senate does not vote on him this session, then Whitley needs to vacate the job the end of the session. If there is a vote on the senate floor and he is not confirmed, then he would have to vacate the office right away.
A spokesperson from the governor’s office told NBC 5 that Gov. Greg Abbott is 100 percent behind Whitley.
