Ken Paxton Accused of Voting From an Address He No Longer Lives At While Vowing to Jail Others for the Same Offence

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Trump-backed Senate hopeful who built a career hunting voter fraud, may have committed the very residency offence he has threatened to prosecute others over.

Paxton appears to have voted in six elections over the past two years using a Collin County address where he no longer lives, according to an investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune published on 7 July 2026. The apparent discrepancy includes May's Republican runoff, the contest that made him his party's nominee for the United States Senate.

Three election lawyers told the news organisations that the attorney general may have violated the same laws his own office has publicly warned voters about.

A Tip Line, a Warning, and an Apparent Contradiction

Just two weeks before this year's primary, Paxton announced a voter fraud tip line, declaring that his office would 'stop at nothing to uncover and stop any illegal voting activity.' That announcement linked to an official election advisory from his own office.

The advisory could hardly be clearer. 'It is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records or to establish a residence for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election,' it reads, adding that 'you must register to vote using the address where you reside.' The guidance is the same standard that the reporting suggests Paxton himself may have fallen short of.

The residency question stems from Paxton's marriage breakdown. His wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, said in a 2025 divorce filing that he had moved out of their Collin County home a year earlier, and a source close to the couple said he has not returned.

Yet Paxton has continued to list that home on his voter registration and voted there in the March primary and May runoff, according to the newsrooms.

The Legal Threshold and Why Intent Is Everything

Voting while ineligible is a serious matter in Texas. It ranks as a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to £7,490 ($10,000), according to state law cited in the investigation. The stakes explain why the story carries weight beyond a paperwork slip.

The law is not as simple as matching a name to a house. State courts have repeatedly held that there is no single test for where a person lives, and prosecutors must prove a voter 'knowingly' or 'intentionally' broke the rules. Even someone who has plainly moved may keep their registration if the absence is temporary and they intend to return, a provision routinely relied on by students and military personnel.

The difficulty for Paxton is his very public divorce. 'I think there would be questions raised about a residence where someone does not live, does not spend the night, and can in no way have the intent to continue to reside,' said David Becker, a former Justice Department voting rights lawyer, in comments to the newsrooms. Becker noted the situation is especially awkward because Paxton's job is to enforce these very laws.

Another lawyer, Clark Birdsall, who once defended a resident Paxton prosecuted for illegal voting, said he was stunned, calling it 'especially egregious that someone such as Ken Paxton appears not to be conforming to the law.'

The Denton County Home and a Prosecutor's Own Record

Where Paxton actually lives has become its own thread. The investigation links him to a 5,000-square-foot home in a gated Denton County community, bought by a trust in mid-February for a listed £1.8 million ($2.4 million). The address of a separate blind trust he shares with his wife was changed to that home a week after the purchase, and a reporter who visited saw a post addressed to 'Warren Paxton,' the attorney general's given name, in the mailbox.

Paxton is not registered to vote in Denton County, the voter rolls show, which matters because each Texas county elects its own local officials. His past conduct sharpens the contrast. In 2018, his election fraud unit arrested nine people in Edinburg on suspicion of using addresses where they did not live, cases that county prosecutors later dismissed after failing to secure a conviction.

Paxton's campaign did not answer detailed questions from the newsrooms. Spokesperson Madison Cercy instead called him 'a national leader on election integrity' and dismissed the reporting as 'a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story,' though the campaign twice declined to specify what it believed was inaccurate.

Notably, Paxton does not shield his voter registration from public view, unlike his Democratic opponent, State Representative James Talarico, whose records are protected. The scrutiny lands as Paxton runs for the Senate seat held by John Cornyn, whom President Donald Trump passed over to endorse Paxton.

For a man who promised to jail Texans who lie about where they live, the question of his own address may prove the hardest case of his career to explain.