Mail ballots limited; relief bill debated
Counties ordered to have only one dropoff site
Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday declared that counties can designate only one location to collect completed mail ballots from voters, upending some counties’ election plans and drawing condemnation and accusations of voter suppression from across the state and country.
The surprise move came in the form of a proclamation that countermanded a legal argument the Texas solicitor general had made in a lawsuit the day before and spurred the threat of legal action by the League of United Latin American Citizens and other civil rights groups.
Most immediately, it forced Harris County to abandon 11 sites set up to allow voters to drop off their absentee ballots. The proclamation takes effect Friday.
Abbott’s proclamation
also said that counties, to improve ballot security, must allow poll watchers to “observe any activity conducted at the early voting clerk’s office” related to the delivery of marked ballots.
“The state ofTexas has a duty to voters to maintain the integrity of our election,” Abbott said in a statement. “These enhanced security protocols will ensure greater transparency and will help stop attempts at illegal voting.”
The abrupt announcement drew sharp rebukes from Democrats incensed that Abbott would make absentee voting more difficult for thoseworried about exposure to the novel coronavirus at the polls.
U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said themove, with voting already underway, was “about as good an example as we’ll get” showing why Texas again should be subject to supervision under the Voting Rights Act.
“Republicans are on the verge of losing, so Governor Abbott is trying to adjust the rules last minute,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. “Courts all over the country, including the Fifth Circuit yesterday, have held that it is too late to change election rules, but our failed Republican leadership will try anyway.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo also rejected the idea that Abbott’s proclamation was aimed at protecting election integrity.
“This isn’t security, it’s suppression,” Hidalgo said in a statement. “Mail ballot voters shouldn’t have to drive 30 miles to drop off their ballot or rely on a mail system that’s facing cutbacks.”
Abbott did not cite any examples of voter fraud, which election law experts say is rare.
Just 0.2 percent of 85,922 absentee voters hand-delivered their ballots during the low-turnout July primary runoff; 39 of the 404 ballots for the Nov. 3 election that have been returned through Thursdayweredropped off by voters
Voting by mail has become a national issue as the presidential election approaches while the country remains in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, with Democrats pushing voters to consider using the method and accusing the Trump administration of trying to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service to disrupt the election. Trump repeatedly has tried to discourage mail balloting, saying it is not secure and is ripe for fraud, even though he uses it frequently.
Texas is one of seven states where all voters are not eligible for mail ballots. Despite that, and a lawsuit from Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to bar Harris County from sending mail ballot applications toall 2.4million registered voters, the county has seen an exponential increase in mail ballot requests during the pandemic.
County Clerk ChrisHollins projects turnout could hit as high as1.5 million, a record; more than 207,000 mail ballots have been requested already.
To accommodate the surge, Hollins had set up 12 locations — 11 of them county clerk annex offices — throughout the 1,777-squaremile county to collect mail ballots. They offered residents an alternative to placing their ballots in the mail, amid concerns the U.S. Postal Service would struggle to deliver ballots on time.
Under Abbott’s proclamation, the county now will be able to accept ballots only at its election
headquarters at NRG Arena.
Hollins accused Abbott of going back on his word in a July 27 proclamation intended to make voting easier during the pandemic. He said Harris County for weeks has advertised its dropoff locations.
“To force hundreds of thousands of seniors and voters with disabilities to use a single dropoff location in a county that stretches nearly 2,000square miles is prejudicial and dangerous.”
Assistant County Attorney Douglas Ray said the governor’s claim that limiting mail ballot collection to one site will combat fraud makes no sense. At each location that Harris County set up, voters hadtodeliver theirownballots, sign in, speak with an assistant clerk and provide identification.
Consolidating that process to one site will make dropping off a ballot more cumbersome, he said.
“It’s a bit like saying we had a hurricane and everybody needs water, so we’re going to have everybody go to a single location,”
Ray said. “We’re not going to distribute it around town.”
The governor’s announcement caught election administrators off guard. Fort Bend County announced five dropoff sites on Thursday morning and then had to scuttle those plans.
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said she received no warning that she would have to close three locations and accused Abbott of trying to deliberately manipulate the election. She told the Austin American-Statesman she would consider a legal challenge to Abbott’s order.
It appeared to have no affect, however, on the enormous counties in West Texas whose area exceeds that of some New England states. The three largest — Brewster, Pecos and Hudspeth — have just one dropoff location each.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, RHouston, praised Abbott for ensuring poll watchers would be able to observe the arrival of mail ballots, writingonTwitter they are “sunshine preventing fraud.” The
Secretary of State’s Office had said Tuesday that poll watchers were not permitted at ballot dropoff sites, but Hollins said he had no objection.
Abbott’s proclamation partially achieves what a group of Houston Republicans, including Harris County Republican Party Chairman Keith Nielsen and conservative activist Steve Hotze, had sought in a lawsuit filed with the Texas Supreme Court.
They argued thatHarris County was violating the Texas Election Code by setting up multiple locations to collect mail ballots, accepting mail ballots before in-person voting began and extending the early voting period. It was Abbott, however, who added an extraweek of early voting in an effort to ensure residents could vote safely during the pandemic.
KyleHawkins, the state solicitor general, on Wednesday argued in a brief to theTexas SupremeCourt that multiple dropoff locations were permitted under Abbott’s July election order. They became illegal only when Abbott issued his proclamation on Thursday.
The governor’s spokesman did not respondtoa request toexplain what prompted Abbott to take action now.
The announcement of Abbott’s proclamation came hours after Paxton praised a federal appeals court for reinstating the Legislature’s ban on straight-ticket voting, noting that voting already had begun.
“Last-minute changes to our voting process would do nothing but stir chaos and increase opportunities for voter fraud,” Paxton said.