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Sanford Nowlin
Viral Voting
Why Texas is forcing residents to risk infection at the polls during the pandemic BY SANFORD NOWLIN
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he clock is running down for local and state leaders to ensure voters won’t be risking their lives this election season. Late last Friday, the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court handed state Attorney General Ken Paxton a victory when it temporarily blocked an expansion of voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. The high court is also expected to oral arguments Wednesday on whether to let stand a lower court ruling that permits voters who lack immunity to the coronavirus — and therefore face infection risks — to request absentee ballots instead of showing up at crowded polling places. Multiple federal lawsuits filed by the Texas Democratic Party and civil rights groups also take issue with the state’s absentee voting rules, which limit access to mail-in ballots to people with disabilities, those over 65 and those out traveling or in jail during an election. All that legal wrangling plays out with early voting for this summer’s runoff set to start on June 29 and as campaigns kick into high gear for the November general election — arguably the most consequential in a generation.
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CURRENT | May 20 – June 2, 2020 | sacurrent.com
“This is a paramount issue for us and for voters across the state,” said Drew Galloway, executive director of MOVE Texas, a nonpartisan group that works to register and mobilize young voters. “We need to know right now how to encourage people to cast their ballots in the upcoming elections.” Central to all of those court battles is whether the disability clause in Texas’ vote-by-mail rule applies to people who lack immunity to the coronavirus. Voting rights advocates argue that the risk of contracting COVID-19 qualifies people to request an absentee ballot so they can avoid exposure at the polls. However, Paxton holds that the existing law clearly doesn’t allow for such a reading. Earlier this month, the Republican AG fired off a letter threatening to prosecute election officials and other “third parties” who advise voters who ordinarily wouldn’t qualify for a mail-in ballot that they may submit one during the pandemic. Apparently unswayed by Paxton’s bluster, Bexar County commissioners last week voted unanimously last week to let residents who fear exposure to COVID-19 at poll sites cast mail-in ballots instead. District Attorney Joe Gonzales testified during the meeting that the state’s disability rules apply to peo-
If mail-in ballots aren’t expanded, experts worry fewer elections volunteers will be willing to work.
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ple at risk for contracting a potentially deadly disease by showing up at crowded polling places. “It’s very exasperating in the state of Texas when everything is done to suppress votes instead of to encourage them,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said prior to the vote. Paxton’s office was unavailable for comment on this piece, however in a news release issued after last week’s Texas Supreme Court ruling, he said he expects the justices to reverse the lower court ruling. “Protecting the integrity of elections is one of my most important and sacred obligations,” he added in the statement.
Legacy of Suppression It would be easier to give weight to Paxton’s claim if Texas’ record on elections was something to envy. But, according to scholars and voting-rights groups, it’s not. The spate of lawsuits over absentee voting are only the latest court challenges to Texas’ voting-rights record. Civil rights organizations have repeatedly taken the state to court for limiting residents’ access to the polls. Texas’ Republican leadership has repeatedly tried to justify those efforts by claiming it’s fighting election fraud — something that, for all its frequent mentions on Fox News, has is a rarity in the current era.
