AUSTIN (1080 KRLD) - Now that the State Legislature is over, so is the tenure of controversial acting Secretary of State David Whitley.
He delivered a letter of resignation to Governor Abbott.
“To have your trust,” according to Whitley, “goes beyond what I ever dreamed of as a kid growing up in a small South Texas community.”
Back in late January Whitley spearheaded the state’s ill-fated attempt to purge 95-thousand names of what he said were non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls. Within days the methodology of compiling the list was proven to be flawed.
In his Senate Nominations Committee hearing Whitley told lawmakers, “I think that the process can be improved. I think that the data can be improved, but at the time we had the data from DPS I was confident that it was the best data.” The Senate refused to vote on his confirmation.
Rice University Political Scientist Mark Jones says Whitley was forced to step down. “If Whitley didn’t resign today he was going to be out of a job regardless tomorrow. Since the Senate didn’t confirm him he could only serve during the session.” Governor Abbott will now nominate someone else who will need to be confirmed by the State Legislature in 2021.