Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Two groups of concerned Texas voters and voting rights advocates are challenging Governor Greg Abbott and his administration in federal court over restrictions Abbott ordered limiting the number of ballot drop-off locations to just one per county.
The voters filed two lawsuits against the governor in the hours after he issued the Oct. 1 order. Both urge the court to put an immediate stop to the changes. If not, Abbott’s mandate would significantly hamper the ability of many Texas voters – especially those in rural parts of the state such as Harris County – to drop off their absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 Election Day.
Harris County is comprised of 1,777 square miles.
The plaintiffs in both lawsuits argue Abbott’s new rules are unconstitutional and will effectively suppress the vote of millions of Texans who will be unable to travel to the single drop-off points.
The only other options for those voters will be to entrust their ballots to the U.S. Postal Service, which has struggled publicly with delays and raised doubts about its ability to deliver ballots on time, or vote in-person.
Many of the residents impacted are senior citizens who are at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 and advised to avoid the kind of undue risk posed by crowds in closed spaces like polling places.
Abbott has said limiting counties to just one ballot drop-off is necessary to guard against voting fraud and ballot tampering.
“For many voters who will vote by mail, the nearest drop-off location will now be dozens or even hundreds of miles away, forcing those voters to travel long distances to deliver their ballots to their county’s election administration or to put their ballots in the care of the overburdened, unreliable United States Postal Service … which has explicitly informed [Abbott] that election mail will be delayed in Texas,” the lawsuit brought by Dallas resident Laurie-Jo Straty argues. “This latest effort to take away Texas voters’ access to voting during the pandemic imposes a significant, unjustifiable burden.”
Joining Straty in her lawsuit is the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans and BigTent Creative, a voting rights nonprofit.
The Texas and National Leagues of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters of Texas, and Texas voters Ralph Edelbach and Barbara Mason are the plaintiffs who filed the other lawsuit.
“In the midst of an election that is already underway, forcing such new burdens on voters who relied on a different set of election rules to make their voting plan, is unreasonable, unfair, and unconstitutional,” the Latin American Citizens lawsuit argues. “And, as Governor Abbott recently argued, it engenders voter confusion and undermines the public’s confidence in the election itself.”
Edelbach, who is 82, planned to drop his ballot off at a Harris County location that was 16 miles from his home, reporting by the Texas Tribune said. If Abbott’s order remains in place, he “will have to travel 36 miles, nearly 90 minutes round trip, to reach the only location.”
Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, who is also named as a defendant in the case in which Edelbach is participating, spoke up at a press conference on Friday, The Washington Post reported.
“Make no mistake, this is intentional,” the Post quoted Hollins as saying. “This is being done to make it more difficult for you to vote. But I urge you — do not be discouraged. If every voter only takes away one thing from today, I want it to be that your vote is your voice in our democracy.”
Texas is expected to see a sizeable increase in the number of absentee ballots cast in the November general election despite the Abbott administration’s efforts to limit the number of voters who are eligible to do so.
he state is one of only five in the nation that is not allowing either universal mail-in voting or residents who are concerned about the risk of catching COVID-19 at the polls to choose mail-in voting, The Washington Post reported.
“The impact of this eleventh-hour decision is momentous, targets Texas’ most vulnerable voters—older voters, and voters with disabilities—and results in wild variations in access to absentee voting drop-off locations depending on the county a voter resides in,” the lawsuit filed by the Latin American Citizens group says. “It also results in predictable disproportionate impacts on minority communities that already hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis.”
Other legal challenges to Abbott’s order might soon follow the two lawsuits, which were both filed in the U.S. District Court in Austin. “Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group of anti-Trump conservatives, is also interested in joining the battle,” The Washington Post was told last week.
Nationwide, the courts have been called upon to officiate conflicts over proposed and ordered changes to election procedure in many states since the coronavirus pandemic began. The demand for greater access to mail-in voting, driven by the many Americans at risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 if they gather in crowded, indoor polling places, has pushed many Republicans to cry foul over concerns about voter fraud.
A report by The Washington Post in late September said in nearly 90 state and federal voting lawsuits “judges have been broadly skeptical as Republicans use claims of voter fraud … declining to endorse the GOP’s arguments or dismissing them” as grounds to enact limitations on mail-in voting.
The deadline to register to vote in Texas is Oct. 5. Early voting begins in Texas on Oct. 13.
Are you a Texas voter planning to submit an absentee ballot for the general election this November? Will you be able to get your ballot to the single drop-off location approved by the governor? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
The plaintiffs in the United Latin American Citizens lawsuit are represented by Chad W. Dunn of Brazil & Dunn; Danielle Lang, Mark P. Gaber, Ravi Doshi, Molly Danahy and Caleb Jackson of Campaign Legal Center; and Luis Roberto Vera, Jr. of The Law Offices of Luis Vera, Jr. and Associates.
The plaintiffs in the Straty lawsuit are represented by Skyler M. Howton, Marc. E. Elias, John M. Geise, Stephanie Command, Danielle Sivalingam, Gillian Kuhlmann and Jessica Frenkel of Perkins Coie LLP.
The Texas Voters Lawsuits are Texas League of United Latin American Citizens, et al. v. Greg Abbott, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-01006 and Laurie-Jo Straty, et al. v. Gregory Abbott, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-01015-RP, both in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
Alabama Voters’ ‘So Help Me God’ Oath Challenged In Lawsuit
Trump Picks Barrett for Supreme Court, Expects Approval Before Election Day
One thought on Texas Voters Challenge Abbott’s Ballot Drop-Off Restrictions
This was not a well thought out plan by Gov. Abbott, and that is very discriminatory to the elderly person, to the disabled person, people that only has public transportation available and other areas might not have even public transportation. The list can go on and on, and it’s an abuse of power that needs to addresses before the general election. It seems that Gov. Abbott is trying to prevent many people from their right to vote. I live in the Great State of Texas and very appalled of this decision of one drop off location in Harris County Texas, and COVID-19 is still among us!