See statutes: Texas Statutes Title 6, Chapter 659. The attorney general, along with the rest of Texas' executive officers, is entitled by Article 4, Section 23 of the Texas Constitution to receive an annual salary, pursuant to Title 6, Section 659.011 of the Texas Statutes.
In 2020, the attorney general received a salary of $153,750 according to the Council of State Governments.
14 Footnotes. The Attorney General of Texas is the chief lawyer and legal officer for the state of Texas. According to the Texas Constitution, the attorney general defends the laws and the constitution of the state of Texas, represents the state in litigation, and approves public bond issues.
Justin Nelson advanced from the Democratic primary for Attorney General of Texas on March 6, 2018.
Incumbent Ken Paxton defeated Justin Nelson and Michael Ray Harris in the general election for Attorney General of Texas on November 6, 2018.
Texas has a Republican triplex. The Republican Party controls the offices of governor, secretary of state, and attorney general.
Michael Ray Harris defeated Jamar Osborne in the Libertarian convention for Attorney General of Texas on April 15, 2018.
Only those requestors authorized by law may seek the Attorney General's written advice through a formal opinion.
Attorney General Opinions. An attorney general opinion is a written interpretation of existing law. Attorney general opinions cannot create new provisions in the law or correct unintended, undesirable effects of the law. Attorney general opinions do not necessarily reflect the attorney general's personal views, ...
Attorney general opinions do not necessarily reflect the attorney general's personal views, nor does the attorney general in any way "rule" on what the law should say. Furthermore, attorney general opinions cannot resolve factual disputes.
There are over 100 different criminal offenses within the Texas Election Code, but the majority fall into a few major categories.
In 2017, the Texas Legislature increased the penalties for most mail ballot related offenses to state jail felonies or higher.
The Office of the Attorney General has statewide investigation authority and concurrent prosecution authority with local elected prosecutors over the election laws of the State. The OAG has deep experience and specialized resources to help train or assist local law enforcement and prosecution in working up complex and challenging election fraud cases.
The OAG responds to the complaints it receives, which are normally vetted by the Secretary of State, and determines whether an offense occurred, and whether, based on the strength of the evidence, the case may be prosecuted successfully. The OAG does not have resources to actively detect fraud, but rather relies on members of the public and election officials to observe fraud and report it to the Secretary of State, who screens complaints pursuant to Election Code Section 31.006 and refers credible allegations to the OAG.
In the harvesting phase, workers target voters as they receive their ballots in the mail and obtain votes for the candidates they support, either by intimidation, deception, compensation, influence, or outright theft of the ballot itself.
Secure elections are the cornerstone of a thriving republic. The legislature made significant improvements in the laws governing state election integrity in 2017 which has contributed to a steady increase in the number of voter fraud referrals. A key priority of the Attorney General is to investigate and prosecute the increasing allegations of voter fraud to ensure election integrity within Texas.
Mail Ballot fraud: This activity is also known as vote harvesting. Vote harvesting exploits the inherent insecurities of the mail ballot system in two phases: seeding and harvesting. In the seeding phase, applications for mail ballots are generated to saturate targeted precincts with mail ballots. Commonly used schemes involve gaining voters’ signatures by deception, intimidation, or forgery; and/or fraudulently making an application for a voter who is not qualified to vote by mail, often by claiming that an able-bodied person is disabled. In the harvesting phase, workers target voters as they receive their ballots in the mail and obtain votes for the candidates they support, either by intimidation, deception, compensation, influence, or outright theft of the ballot itself.