Abbott was implicated in the attempted purging of nearly 100,000 registered voters from voter rolls. The voters planned to be purged were alleged to not be American citizens, however Texas Secretary of State officials later publicly stated that tens of thousands of legitimate voters were wrongly flagged for removal. The purge was cancelled after Texas settled lawsuits challenging this removal of voters. Abbott claimed that he played no role in the voter purge, but emails released in June 2019 showed that Abbott pressed officials at the Department of Public Safety about the purge before it was to be implemented.