Judge Blocks Texas Governor’s Move To Limit Election Ballot Drop Boxes

Topline

A federal judge late Friday blocked Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive restricting each county in the state to just one ballot drop-off location in the 2020 election, a ruling that is viewed as a victory for Democrats, who argued that Abbott’s executive order suppressed the vote, particularly in the Democratic stronghold of Harris County, the state’s most populous county that includes Houston.

Key Facts

Key Background:

President Donald Trump has spent the past few months railing against mail-in voting, tweeting that there is “NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent” and definitively declared that “This will be a Rigged Election.” Following Abbott’s limit of ballat boxes on Oct. 1, voter-advocacy groups filed federal lawsuits last week, claiming that limiting the number of drop-off locations for voters to cast absentee ballots would force Texans to “travel further distances, face longer waits and risk exposure” to Covid-19. Abbott Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins said in a statement Friday evening that Judge Pittman’s decision was a “victory for voting rights” and that Harris County will have its 11 satellite drop box locations open on Monday. Early voting in Texas begins on Tuesday, October 13.

Tangent:

Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 9 points in Texas in 2016 (52% to 43%), but recent polling surprisingly shows that Joe Biden could be within striking distance. A New York Times/Siena poll released late last month showed Trump had a slim 3-point lead (within the margin of error). In that poll, Hispanic voters in Texas favored Biden by 25 points, 57% to 32%.

Big Number:

40%: That’s the percentage of Harris County’s 4.7 million residents that are Latino. Another roughly 20% are Black.

Critical Quote: 

“Governor Abbott’s attempt to suppress Texas voters has been thwarted. Judge Pitman’s common sense order followed well-established law and stopped the governor from making up election rules after the election started,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, the Texas Democratic Party chairman. “This isn’t the first time Abbott and Texas Republicans have tried to suppress the vote and it won’t be the last,” 

Further Reading:

Judge Rules Against Texas Limit Of One Drop-Off Site Per County For Absentee Ballots (NPR) 

Texas Governor Limits Ballot Drop-Off Sites To One Per County, Greenlights Poll Watchers (Forbes)

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