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There were no meaningful problems with Texas’ system of elections in 2020. Turnout was strong, despite the pandemic, and there were no questions about the integrity of the state’s results.
But Big Lie advocates nevertheless got to work on an ambitious voter-suppression package that banned drive-through voting, prohibited voting in overnight hours, empowered partisan poll watchers, and made it a felony in Texas for election officials to send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters.
What’s more, the same anti-voting package created a new ID requirement for those who want to cast absentee ballots through the mail.
The Lone Star State’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed the package into law in September. As The Washington Post reported over the weekend, those who predicted problems are already being proven right.
A restrictive new voting law in Texas has sown confusion and erected hurdles for those casting ballots in the state’s March 1 primary, with election administrators rejecting early batches of mail ballots at historic rates and voters uncertain about whether they will be able to participate. In recent days, thousands of ballots have been rejected because voters did not meet a new requirement to provide an identification number inside the return envelope.
To be sure, the preliminary hurdle imposed by the system is flawed and unnecessary: Only Texans who are 65 or older automatically qualify for a mail-in ballot.
But Republican policymakers in the state added an additional hurdle by forcing seniors to add a new identification number —typically a driver’s license number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number — which was never before considered necessary. The result is a predictable mess: Eligible Texans are trying to cast their ballots the same way they have before, only to have their ballots rejected.
Chris Davis, Williamson County’s elections chief, told the Post, “[O]ur hope is that we can get these voters to correct the defects in a timely fashion. But what if they don’t, because three months ago they didn’t have to?”
The newspaper also spoke to a 76-year-old retired educator from Katy, Tex., who said, “It feels like people were just sitting up late at night thinking up ways to discourage people from voting.”
Complicating matters, the state’s new voter-suppression law also prohibits public officials from “soliciting” vote-by-mail applications.
A federal judge issued a temporary injunction Friday against provisions in Texas’ new voting law that prohibit public officials from “soliciting” vote-by-mail applications, which local election officials interpreted to mean it would be a crime to encourage voters to cast a ballot by mail, even if they’re allowed to.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez agreed and issued an injunction against this part of the law. The judge’s ruling characterized the policy as infringing on the First Amendment, explaining that local election officials’ speech “has been and continues to be chilled.”
The state is expected to appeal.