Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ Texas went looking for voter fraud. Then everything fell apart. But along the way, officials spread plenty of misinformation.

Let’s take a look at what happened. #txlege bit.ly/2TpxDf5

2/ First, context: Last Friday, Texas *loudly* announced that counties should check on the citizenship of 95,000 registered voters.

Then, Texas *quietly* told counties that many of the voters flagged for citizenship review don't belong on that list. bit.ly/2TpxDf5

3/ But before Texas started walking back that claim, you might have seen tweets or headlines that claimed Texas said 58,000 non-citizens had voted in Texas.

That wasn’t true.

That was not what the secretary of state's office had said. #txlege bit.ly/2TpxDf5

4/ That didn’t stop some top Texas officials from making some misleading statements. #txlege bit.ly/2TpxDf5

5/ Ken Paxton took to Twitter within the hour and prefaced the news with the words “VOTER FRAUD ALERT.” bit.ly/2TpxDf5

6/ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott thanked Paxton and the secretary of state “for uncovering and investigating this illegal vote registration.” bit.ly/2TpxDf5 #txlege

7/ The Republican Party of Texas sent out a fundraising email with the subject line that read “BREAKING: 95,000 Non-Citizens Registered to Vote?!”

That is not what the secretary of state's office had said.

bit.ly/2TpxDf5

8/ President Donald Trump chimed in, claiming “58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas” and adding the unsupported claim that “voter fraud is rampant” across the country.

Again, that is not what the secretary of state's office said. bit.ly/2TpxDf5

9/ It is not like officials were without warning that the methodology they were using was questionable and risky. bit.ly/2TpxDf5

10/ In Florida, officials in 2012 first drew up a list of about 180,000 possible noncitizen voters.

It was later culled to about 2,600 names.

Ultimately, only about 85 voters were nixed from the rolls. bit.ly/2TpxDf5

11/ Colorado started with a list of 11,805 individuals in 2012 who they said were noncitizens when they got their driver’s licenses.

But in the end, officials said they had found about 141 noncitizens on the voter rolls — 35 with a voting history. bit.ly/2TpxDf5

12/12 So now what?

Well, we’re a week into the review.

No evidence of large-scale voter fraud has emerged.

And lawsuits are being filed.

Read more here. bit.ly/2TpxDf5