Largest county in Texas accused of approving voter registrations of non-citizens

The largest county in Texas has been approving voter registrations of non-U.S. citizens, according to a lawsuit filed Monday that also appears to show evidence that some of those ballots have already been cast.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation says it has found dozens of people registered to vote in Harris County over the last 25 years, who either admitted when registering that they were not legal U.S. citizens or didn't check the related box on the application form. Some of those voters were later purged from the county's rolls.

The foundation has asked a Houston appeals court to tell the county to deny any application that doesn't have the question about legal citizenship clearly marked "YES" or to at least investigate each application not marked as such before granting approval.

"These failures harm citizens, but they also put those immigrants into serious jeopardy with federal officials," said foundation President J. Christian Adams. 

The lawsuit provides evidence of individuals checking the "NO" box who were still signed up to vote, according to registration records. The Harris Country registrar says the number of non-citizens approved for voter rolls is small compared to the 2.4 million voters registered in the county.