Texas Secretary of State's Confirmation Moves Forward, Despite Strong Opposition

AUSTIN -- The Republican-dominated Senate Nominations Committee on Thursday moved forward the confirmation of embattled interim Secretary of State David Whitley on a party-line vote.After leaving Whitley’s confirmation pending for nearly a month as the problematic rollout of his office’s directive to review the citizenship of thousands of Texas voters continued to play out, the nominations committee approved his nomination by a vote of 4-3. The vote came a day after a federal judge ordered Whitley’s office to tell Texas counties not to send any more “notices of examination” to people whose citizenship is being reviewed and not to remove any people from voter rolls without his approval until several lawsuits against the state play out in court.  Continue reading...