Joe Biden Projected to Defeat Donald Trump for Presidency
After a tense four days of vote-counting in battleground states, all of the country's major networks called the race Saturday after declaring that the two-term former vice president had won Pennsylvania.
Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump for the presidency
"Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump for the presidency" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden has clinched enough states to win the 270 electoral votes needed to become president, The Associated Press declared Saturday, a day after Decision Desk HQ also called the race for Biden. His victory was cemented after Pennsylvania was called for the two-term former vice president under Barack Obama.
Various news outlets report that Biden is also ahead of President Donald Trump in Georgia and Arizona, two states that voted in Trump’s favor in 2016. (Georgia’s secretary of state says the state is headed to a recount.) With several states still counting ballots, Biden leads Trump by about 4 million votes nationwide as of Saturday morning.
"I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris," Biden said in a written statement. "With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal."
Trump has refused to concede. His campaign released a statement shortly after the networks announced Biden's win, saying the election was "far from over."
"Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor," Trump said in the statement. "Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated."
Trump’s campaign filed legal challenges to contest the election results in three battleground states. Judges in two of those cases — in Michigan and Georgia — tossed out the lawsuits because the campaign failed to provide evidence that laws were broken. A federal judge also denied the campaign’s request to stop counting votes in Philadelphia, but ordered election officials to expand the number of people allowed in the room. The president’s campaign seeks to intervene in another pending Pennsylvania case stemming from mail-in ballots received after Election Day but before Friday’s deadline.
The Nevada Republican Party also asked the Department of Justice to investigate its baseless allegation that thousands of nonresidents cast ballots in the state. A DOJ official is reviewing the claim, USA Today reports.
Biden, meanwhile, projected confidence throughout the week. On Twitter, he said he and his campaign “continue to feel very good” and urged his supporters to stay calm. Friday night as his margins expanded in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada, he and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, spoke to supporters in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden stopped short of declaring victory but said, “We’re going to win this race.”
Biden's win is historic: Not only did he break the record for the most number of votes cast for any presidential candidate, but the victory will make Harris the first woman and the first Black and South Asian American person to become vice president.
As news of Biden's victory spread, Texas political leaders began issuing public statements.
"Politics aside, this is a remarkable moment for our country," Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said. "We need more women and people of color in leadership."
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat, said, "We will now have a leader who will listen to science to guide us through this crisis. A leader who will unite us as a country and work hard to heal our divisions by building consensus to solve the big problems we face."
"We witnessed the counting of every vote and the beauty of democracy," Austin Mayor Steve Adler tweeted. "The people of the United States decide who's president. Let us now restore civility and dignity in all we do."
State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, sent a tweet addressing Christians: "Dear Christians — if your first response is to spew hatred and damn Biden’s Presidency to the ash heap, you’re doing it wrong. We are called to pray for our leaders at all levels. And though I didn’t vote for him, I will fervently pray for my new President, Joe Biden. Join me."
Decision Desk HQ and The Associated Press called the election for Trump days after Trump prematurely — and falsely — declared victory in the election. On Thursday night, as polls showed the gap in vote totals narrowing in Georgia and Pennsylvania, the president spoke in the White House briefing room, saying “it’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided” in favor of Democrats. (His statement came after the president spent months discouraging Republican voters from voting by mail, with the exception of Florida, and baselessly sowing doubt about the validity of those votes. Trump won Florida in both 2016 and 2020.)
Trump, who won Texas on Tuesday by roughly 6 points after winning by 9 in 2016, also railed against pre-election polls, saying they amounted to voter suppression — without explanation or proof.
And he doubled down on calls to end vote counting in states where the vote count at the time showed him in the lead while encouraging election officials to continue where he trailed Biden.
After speaking Thursday, Trump left the briefing room without taking questions. His claims followed a similar speech early Wednesday morning. In that speech, inside the historic East Room of the White House, Trump falsely claimed victory in states in which millions of ballots had not yet been counted. He proceeded to allege without any evidence that Democrats are stealing the election by continuing to count votes already cast and threatened to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
Shawn Mulcahy and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff contributed reporting.
Disclosure: Steve Adler, a former Texas Tribune board chair, has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/07/joe-biden-donald-trump/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
John Cornyn defeats MJ Hegar for U.S. Senate seat
Hegar called Cornyn and conceded within minutes of the race being called, according to both campaigns. Cornyn gave a victory speech shortly after 9 p.m.
John Cornyn defeats MJ Hegar to retain U.S. Senate seat
"John Cornyn defeats MJ Hegar to retain U.S. Senate seat" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. And bookmark our Texas election results page here.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has defeated Democratic challenger MJ Hegar by a comfortable margin.
With an estimated 77% of the votes counted, Cornyn was leading Hegar by 8 percentage points 52.6% to 45%. Decision Desk declared Cornyn the winner earlier in the night when he was up by a point.
Libertarian Kerry McKennon was getting 1%, while Green Party candidate David Collins was garnering 0.7%.
Hegar called Cornyn and conceded within minutes of the race being called, according to both campaigns. Cornyn gave a victory speech shortly after 9 p.m.
"This is a historic election for so many reasons," Cornyn said. "Whether I earned your vote or whether you were pulling for my opponent, I'm honored and committed to serving and representing all Texans."
"I'm glad we had this fight," he added. "It's a fight for the soul of our nation and our state."
In a statement, Hegar touted the Democratic progress her campaign aided despite losing.
"Together, we stood up and got to work, building a powerful grassroots campaign from the ground up, shattering voter turnout records, and most importantly sending a message to a previously safe Senator that he answers to us," Hegar said. "I am confident that the work we did will move our state forward for years to come."
Cornyn was competing for his fourth term against Hegar, the former Air Force helicopter pilot who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. House two years ago in suburban Austin.
Throughout the race, Cornyn maintained single-digit polling leads against Hegar — some smaller than others — though she benefited in recent weeks from fundraising momentum and a late outside spending surge, making for a less certain homestretch.
Cornyn told reporters after his victory speech that the 11th-hour Democratic spenders "had more money than they knew what to do with, so they ended up investing in a long shot in places like Texas."
Hegar ran against Cornyn, casting him as a career politician whose time had passed and touting herself as a military veteran, working-mom outsider who would better represent Texas values. She accused him of not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously enough and emphasized his leading role in the GOP push to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and, with it, its protections for people with preexisting conditions.
Cornyn, meanwhile, pitched himself as a “steady hand on the wheel” whose congressional seniority was especially needed in such a turbulent time. He portrayed Hegar as too liberal for the state, calling her views hostile to the oil and gas industry and seeking to link her to the “defund the police” movement.
After U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s unexpectedly close race against Beto O’Rourke in 2018, Cornyn admitted Republicans had a wake-up call and sought early to show he was not taking anything for granted. He hired a campaign manager in January 2019 and lined up a series of big-name intraparty endorsements — including that of President Donald Trump — to guard against serious primary opposition.
Cornyn was successful. State Sen. Pat Fallon, R-Frisco, opted against challenging Cornyn after a short flirtation, and Cornyn easily dispatched four primary opponents in March.
Hegar’s path to her party’s nomination was far longer and more difficult. The Democratic primary attracted 11 other candidates, and many were upset when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee intervened in December and backed Hegar.
She finished first in the primary but found herself in a runoff against state Sen. Royce West of Dallas, who proved to be a tough opponent. The runoff was postponed from May until July due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it turned bitter at the end as West interrogated Hegar over her Democratic credentials, and she suggested he had used his public office to enrich himself.
Hegar defeated West by 4 points, a closer-than-expected margin that came after an 11th-hour wave of spending by her national Democratic allies.
Once in the general election, it was not immediately clear how quickly Hegar would be able to pivot from the protracted nominating process to taking on a well-funded incumbent. She put that question to rest on Sept. 30, when she announced she had raised over $13.5 million in the third quarter, nearly eight times more than what she raised in her previous best quarter. She raised nearly double Cornyn’s haul for the period, and more notably, she erased his long-running cash-on-hand advantage.
As early voting got underway, more help arrived for Hegar — and in a major way. A coalition of national Democratic super PACs, led by the Silicon Valley-backed Future Forward, dumped over $20 million into the race, much of it on TV ads against Cornyn. The incumbent, whose allies were not able to keep up, admitted the late spending spurge was what worried him the most as he neared Election Day.
The homestretch was not all positive for Hegar, though. After her relationship with West came up at her only debate with Cornyn, West revealed that he did not plan to vote for her and said she had a problem with Black voters. The Cornyn campaign seized on the bombshell, cutting ads highlighting West’s comments. West pushed back on Cornyn making an issue out of it and said he would vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, but he never confirmed whether he specifically cast a ballot for Hegar.
While the pandemic upended plans for in-person campaigning throughout most of the general election, both candidates crisscrossed the state in the final days. Hegar joined U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, for her three-city tour of Texas on Friday before setting out on her own. Cornyn, meanwhile, completed a weeklong bus tour of the state that ended Monday with three stops featuring Cruz.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/03/john-cornyn-mj-hegar-texas-senate/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Five Things to Watch on Election Day 2020 in Texas
Texas is playing host to a series of high-stakes contests up and down the ballot, from a presidential race that could be the state’s closest in a generation to the fight for the Texas House majority.
By Alex Samuels and Patrick Svitek - November 3, 2020
It’s finally Election Day
After months of campaigning and prognosticating — all during a pandemic — Texas is playing host to a series of high-stakes contests up and down the ballot, from a presidential race that could be the state’s closest in a generation to the fight for the Texas House majority. And it is all coming after an early voting period that saw turnout exceed the number of votes for the entire 2016 election. After 9.7 million people voted early, some experts believe Texas might be on a path to potentially surpass 12 million voters when all is said and done.
Texas has attracted intense national interest in recent weeks, and in one sign of it, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, spent the day before the election traveling the state.
“The road to the White House runs through Texas, and the road to a Senate majority runs straight through the great state of Texas, and that’s why I’m proud to be here, folks,” Perez said Monday morning in San Antonio.
Hours later, as he finished a six-day bus tour in Dripping Springs, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn recognized two of the factors making for a dramatic end to the general election in Texas: the massive early voting turnout and a late surge in outside Democratic spending against both him and President Donald Trump. Cornyn said the 9.7 million early voters are a “wonderful thing” but added that “about a million of them have never voted in a primary general election, so that’s going to be an interesting mystery.”
“We’ve never seen such an unprecedented amount of out-of-state money coming into Texas this election,” said Cornyn, speaking from the balcony of his campaign bus surrounded by down-ballot candidates. “Every single Republican up here is being outspent by our opposition.”
A reminder: The number of Texas voters casting absentee ballots has risen sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the outcome of some key races may not be known Tuesday night as a result. That being said, here are five of the biggest storylines to watch.
Can Joe Biden actually win Texas?
A Democrat hasn’t won Texas’ electoral votes since 1976, but statewide polls show a highly competitive race.
If Biden can turn voters out and flip the state, it would be a massive event in state and American politics — and would almost certainly mean a Biden victory nationwide.
A Democratic win in Texas could hinge on Hispanic and suburban voters. On Friday, Biden’s running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, made a last-minute stop in McAllen with Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro. When asked by a reporter there why she was visiting the border city, Harris said it was “because there are people here who matter, people who are working hard, people who love their country, and we need to be here and be responsive to that.” (Trump hasn’t done any general-election campaigning in Texas, though national surveys have shown Trump improving among Hispanic voters compared with his 2016 standing.)
Texas’ fast-changing suburbs, meanwhile, have been steadily slipping out of Republicans’ grip over the last few election cycles. On Tuesday, Democrats are hoping to pick up several congressional and state House seats in these regions and build on the suburban strength they garnered in 2018 to undercut Trump’s advantage in rural areas of the state.
Of the 1.8 million newly registered voters the state gained between 2016 and 2020, most of them are in large urban and suburban counties. The big cities are dominated by Democrats. Meanwhile, traditionally Republican suburban counties like Denton, Williamson and Collin are trending more blue.
Will the Texas House flip?
After gaining 12 seats in 2018, Democrats are nine away from the majority in the Texas House. Flipping the chamber would unlock a major prize for the party: more influence in the 2021 redistricting process.
While Democrats have to defend the dozen seats they picked up, they are confident about those races and have cast a wide net on offense, designating as many as 22 pickup opportunities. At the core of that battlefield are the nine seats that O’Rourke won in 2018 that are still represented by Republicans.
The battle for the lower chamber has become a hugely expensive affair, attracting tens of millions of dollars from statewide and national groups. On the latest campaign finance reports alone, covering Sept. 25 through Oct. 24, candidates across 34 battleground districts combined to raise $39.4 million, including in-kind donations, and spend $22.3 million.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who is not up for reelection until 2022, has made the state House fight his top political priority this election cycle. His campaign has spent over $6 million on down-ballot races this fall, according to a memo sent Monday to state House Republicans.
Abbott has also visited a handful of battleground districts recently to knock doors. On Saturday, Abbott was in House District 121, where state Rep. Steve Allison, R-San Antonio, is fighting for reelection after winning the seat by 9 points just two years ago. Still, Democratic optimism about capturing the House majority has only grown in the homestretch. In one sign that the party anticipates being in control come January, three Democratic members have announced in recent days that they are running for speaker.
How many U.S. House seats will Democrats pick up?
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Texas in March 2019 and declared the state would be “ground zero” for Democrats in 2020. They have made good on her promise, at least when it comes to the congressional battlefield here.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has built a Texas target list that includes 10 GOP-held districts, more seats than the committee is working to flip anywhere else in the country. In all but two of the 10 districts, the DCCC has added the Democratic nominee to its Red to Blue program for top candidates.
National Republicans, meanwhile, have targeted the two seats they lost in 2018, those held by Democratic U.S. Reps. Colin Allred of Dallas and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher of Houston.
With Allred and Fletcher well positioned for reelection, most of the action has centered on the Democrats’ targets, and four of them in particular at this point: the 21st District, where Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, is up for reelection; the 22nd District, where Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, is retiring; the 23rd District, where Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, is not seeking reelection; and the 24th District, where Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell, is also vacating the seat.
That is not to say Democrats are not seeing promise in other targeted districts. As an example, they have grown optimistic in the homestretch about the 3rd District, where Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, is running for reelection in the kind of highly educated suburban district that has swung away from Trump.
Can John Cornyn dispatch a late Democratic spending blitz?
Cornyn, a Republican, has long had a polling lead — if small at times — in his reelection campaign. But the race is ending on a less certain note amid an 11th-hour spending spree by Democratic outside groups that even Cornyn admits is concerning.
Senate Majority PAC, Future Forward and EMILY’s List combined to dump eight figures into the contest during early voting, seeing a late opportunity to unseat Cornyn and elect his Democratic opponent, MJ Hegar. The president of EMILY’s List, Stephanie Schriock, told reporters Friday that the contest has become a “late-breaking race” and that with Texas’ huge early voting turnout, “we feel like we’ve got a real path here to victory.” A pro-Cornyn super PAC has ratcheted up its spending in recent days, but it has not been able to match the Democratic coalition dollar for dollar.
Both Cornyn and Hegar hit the road hard in the lead-up to Tuesday. Hegar, the former Air Force helicopter pilot, joined Harris for her three stops Friday across Texas and then headed out on her own, visiting Austin, Del Rio, Laredo, San Antonio, Webster, Arlington and Dallas.
Cornyn, meanwhile, went on the bus tour, which began Wednesday. He swung through 21 cities through Monday, which included three stops that day with the state’s junior senator, Ted Cruz, who warned in Dripping Springs that the state is “under assault” and asked Republicans to “fight back the socialist horde that is attacking our state.”
How high can Texas turnout get — and when will all the votes be counted?
There were 9.7 million early voters in Texas, exceeding the 9 million who voted in the entire 2016 election. Now the question is this: Just how high will total turnout go Tuesday?
Many political observers are bracing for a turnout north of 12 million, which would be uncharted territory in Texas politics. Just how uncharted? Consider this: A turnout of over 12 million would be more than two and a half times that of the last time Cornyn was on the ballot, in 2014.
Across the country, election officials are preparing for a longer-than-usual wait time for full results due to adjustments made as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, that could be less of a factor in Texas, which declined to expand mail-in voting and lets counties begin counting absentee ballots before Election Day.
Still, more down-ballot races are in play than in recent memory in Texas, and there is the possibility that multiple outcomes are not confidently known until every last ballot is counted. In Texas, absentee ballots count as long as they are postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day and received by the county elections office by 5 p.m. the next day. Counties can also accept overseas military ballots through Nov. 9.
How Votes are Counted in Texas
Each of Texas' 254 counties is responsible for counting its ballots, but they have specific guidelines they must follow.
By Hanna Kozlowska, Votebeat - November 2, 2020
This coverage is made possible by Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. The article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy.
There are more votes than ever to count in Texas this year: A record-breaking 9.7 million people cast ballots during Texas’ early voting period — 8.7 million of those were cast in person, and nearly 1 million sent through the mail. By the time Election Day comes and goes, experts predict that the total Texas vote count could reach 12 million.
The state’s 254 counties are responsible for tabulating the ballots, but they must follow a certain set of rules. Here’s how the process works in Texas:
Processing and counting mail-in ballots
County officials have already started reviewing mail-in ballots. In counties with over 100,000 residents, early voting ballot boards were allowed to start convening and processing mail-in ballots 12 days before the election. In smaller ones, they could start after the polls closed on the last day of early voting — which this year was Oct. 30. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3, and they must arrive by Nov. 4.Once the early voting ballot board gets the ballot, officials check whether the voter is registered to vote and may entrust a signature verification committee to match the signature on the envelope to the voter’s absentee ballot application. (They may use other signatures the county has on file.) The signature verification committee must have at least one reviewer from each party, and the majority of its members has to agree that the signature matches. Because of a ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 19, Texas officials can reject a mail-in ballot without telling the voter, unlike in states such as California, where voters must be notified of a problem with their ballot and given the opportunity to fix it.
In the counties that use scanning devices to count votes, officials could start opening the envelopes and scanning the ballots in preparation of Election Day. But this process hasn’t gone smoothly everywhere — in Tarrant County, Texas’ third most-populous, the scanners were rejecting about one-third of the mail-in ballots because of illegible bar codes, forcing board members to manually replicate the ballots in order for those votes to be counted. Although the votes can be scanned, they cannot be tallied before Election Day.
The portion of absentee ballots in Texas is larger than usual but smaller than in many other states since Texas is one of the few states that didn’t expand mail-in ballot eligibility requirements during the coronavirus pandemic. Voters had to have an excuse, whether it was being over 65 years old, having a disability, or being out of the county. The risk of getting infected with the coronavirus was not a sufficient reason.
Counting in-person ballots
Because of the pandemic, however, Texans were able to vote early in person starting on Oct. 13, providing six more days than in previous years. Voters use three methods to cast their ballots in person, depending on their county. Unlike many other states, Texas does not require a paper record of a person’s vote when using an electronic system. Still, for in-person voting, paper ballots remain the main way many Texans cast ballots, according to the secretary of state’s office. In some locations, the process is analog from start to finish, and ballots are both filled in and counted by hand. In others, voters mark paper ballots, which they then insert into a scanner, which also acts as a tabulating device.
The third method is through direct record electronic systems, or DREs. The voter makes their choices on a touchscreen or using a dial, and presses a “Vote” or “Cast Ballot” button to register their decision. That’s the kind of machine used by Harris County, making it the largest jurisdiction in the country — with 4.7 million residents — whose votes can’t be verified by a paper trail.
The Texas voting system is very decentralized, which means each of its 254 counties might handle the way it processes and counts its votes differently. For example, in Harris County, votes cast on the DRE machine are registered on a memory card, which has to be taken out of the device and transported to a central counting location, uploaded onto a computer and then tallied, The Houston Chronicle reported.
In Kendall County, population 47,431, which will use new equipment this year, the scanning machine is also the tabulator, and the process happens at the precinct level.
Not even the secretary of state’s office, which oversees elections in Texas, was able to tell Votebeat whether most counties do their vote tabulating on the precinct or on the county level.
Reporting results
All counties must, however, notify the secretary of state’s office of their results.
“The counties manually enter the vote totals into our system (TEAM, the state’s election interface) on election night,” Stephen Chang, spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office, said. “They access a web based application and put the numbers in one digit at a time, one race at a time.”
Most Texas counties report their early vote tallies pretty soon after the polls close at 7 p.m. The in-person Election Day count across the state usually comes in later, especially since Texas voters can cast a ballot if they are in line when polling sites close at 7 p.m. The polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight estimates that Texas should get most of its tallying done on Tuesday, but the counting might go into Wednesday or Thursday.
That is not the end of the process. Texas has a post-election audit to ensure an accurate count. Districts that use electronic voting systems that do provide a paper record of the vote have to start conducting a partial manual count, also known as canvassing, by Friday, Nov. 6. It has to be done in three precincts or in 1% of the precincts, whichever is the larger number, and be completed by the 21st day after the election.
Small Towns in Texas Endure a Stressful Election
While big cities and high-stakes lawsuits dominate Texas voting news, the election may come down to rural counties where there's usually just a few people to handle registering voters and reporting results.
Without Christie Mooney, there is no election for Archer County’s 6,000 registered voters this year. No one else in the rural enclave near Wichita Falls in north Texas is responsible for registering voters, opening mail-in ballots, setting up polling stations, training poll workers, running the website, studying election code or pretty much anything else that comes along.
In a large city like Houston to the distant southeast, Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins has teams to perform each of those tasks, overseeing a staff of hundreds running a complex operation to serve the county's 2.4 million registered voters. As a flurry of lawsuits and court decisions have continually shifted the landscape of this year's highly charged election, election officials like Hollins in urban counties have gangs of lawyers, and daily find themselves in the thick of fierce partisan battles over voting rules and access.
But in much of Texas, elections come down to the people like Mooney, a 55-year-old former car dealership office manager turned election junkie. Rural counties like hers often have no more than a few people, sometimes in part-time jobs, responsible for everything.
Four days before Election Day, with voting underway at the county's three early polling places, her office in the Archer County courthouse reflected that. Plastic tables stacked with half-a-tree’s worth of papers lined the walls, crowding the methodically organized office. A giant whiteboard loomed over the room bearing endless reminders and to-dos written in blue marker: Program ballot — check. Order election kits — check. She still needed to install backup batteries in voting machines in case of a power outage and build voting kits.
Her desk showed a flare of fall — blue, orange and white pumpkins — and 2020 election mayhem, with dozens of manilla envelopes set in 11 piles.
“No one understands how difficult elections are to run,” Mooney said “The election administrators in every state in the Union are the ones that are under the pressure, waking up at three o'clock in the morning.”
Before an impending ice storm earlier this week, Mooney made sure her poll workers had rides and scheduled a de-icer for the parking lots and paths into the building to ensure voters’ safety. Over the course of a few hasty phone calls, she barely had time to explain all this, let alone breathe.
Rule changes have come often this election season, covering everything from when absentee ballots can be counted to wearing masks while voting, leaving election administrators scrambling to keep up.
“It’s been really hectic,” said Virginia Pallarez, who's running the election in Presidio County, in far West Texas, closer to New Mexico than Austin. An extra week of early voting, which Gov. Greg Abbott announced in late July, left Pallarez searching for more poll workers in a county with fewer than 5,000 registered voters. She spent precious time placing ads and calling anyone who she thought would help out.
When counties were limited to one location to drop off mail-in ballots, she stretched herself even thinner trying to figure out where that would be.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/c491349a5b5ba3b394ef25ded4426906/Archer%20Co%20Early%20Voting%20ST%20TT%2011.jpg)
Hollins has nothing but empathy for his rural colleagues. In Houston, he has the staff to handle changes as they come in, but he knows that’s not the case for most Texas counties, which he says is “frustrating.”
“I know that there are 253 other election administrators who face similar challenges and may not have as large of a team who could step up and do this work at these critical junctures,” Hollins said. “I feel for the election administrators across Texas.”
While Pallarez struggled to find enough poll workers, Hollins has 12,000 this year — drawn from a pool of 40,000 applicants — roughly double the number the county had in 2016. This allowed him to staff polls for 24 hours one day this week, and gives him a cache of 28,000 contacts should he need more. He’s doing everything he can to allow voters to cast ballots whenever they can.
“This is the most important election of our lifetime, period,” Hollins said.
But after months of adrenaline and caffeine, Hollins, like the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters running the election across Texas, is tired. This year has been dizzying. Rushed special and local elections, the end of straight-ticket voting, one mail-in ballot drop-off location per county, curbside voting, a raging pandemic. The list is endless.
“We're all losing sleep right now,” Hollins said on his way to visit a polling station Tuesday. “And we'll all be anxious to catch up on that once this election is over. But we know how important this is. And we're deeply committed to this mission.”
That exhaustion is even more pronounced in rural counties.
Kevin Stroud, like Mooney, is running Aransas County’s election mostly by himself — he has one other full-time staffer and one part-timer in the rural county near Corpus Christi on Texas’ Gulf Coast. Stroud used to work at the city library, and came into the election administrator's job in September. He had to hit the ground sprinting to keep up with the changes.
“We’re just average ordinary people,” Stroud said. “We come to work and do our best job to allow them to get out there and exercise their right to vote.”
From answering questions from his 18,000 registered voters about where they can go vote and when, to documenting voting procedures and sending data to the office of Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughes to make sure he is adhering to the latest rules, Stroud has put in an extra 20 hours in recent weeks. He wouldn’t change a thing.
“Once you get bit with the election bug, you can’t get away from it,” Stroud said.
With rumbles from both major political parties indicating that they're prepared to challenge unwelcome election results, on top of trying to keep voters safe from the coronavirus, many of Stroud’s peers are even more stressed than usual about getting things right.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/a65ce868a9be51c3fc266bb03ba4261c/Archer%20Co%20Early%20Voting%20ST%20TT%2004.jpg)
“This is a different election. Everybody’s under a lot of pressure right now,” Pallarez said. “I’ve never felt just this type of pressure to conduct the election without any problems. I don’t want anybody to come in and question whether we did this wrong or that went wrong.”
Mooney agrees. She is often on the phone with neighboring election administrators talking through logistics and the latest procedural changes that are essential to running a successful election.
“The stakes are too high to make a mistake,” Mooney said. “I double check, triple check everything. I don’t want there to be any questions about the integrity of my elections.”
In many rural counties, like in urban Harris county, voter engagement is way up, making the jobs of election administrators even busier. In Archer, Mooney hears from voters daily asking for early returns and has registered 200 new voters this year. In Aransas, Stroud opened up a second early voting site, which means he had to find more staffing, to absorb the record number of voters. With about double the number of Aransas residents voting by-mail this election — through Thursday, 1,400 voters did so — he’s busy processing those ballots and fielding calls from voters wondering if their votes have been received.
According to each of the election officials, their families and friends finally understand how important and stressful their job is. They are regularly thanked for what they are doing.
For Mooney, Tuesday night will be less of an end to a marathon — though she will feel relieved when it does come — than another lap in an unrelenting race.
“It’s a feeling of accomplishment,” she said. “But it only lasts one night before you have to start getting ready for the next one.”
Kleberg County - Early Voting Ends October 30
Early voting for Kleberg County will end on Friday, October 30th.
South Texas Community News - October 30, 2020
Early voting for Kleberg County will end on Friday, October 30th. Voting will be held at the Annex Building located at 720 E. King Ave. in Kingsville from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Kleberg County Polling Locations for November 3, 2020
Joint General and Special Election Polling locations will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Precinct # 11 - Wild Horse Mall - Main Entrance, 1601 S. Highway 77
Precinct # 12 - H. M. King High School, 2210 Brahma Blvd
Precinct # 13 - Coastal Bend Fellowship Church, 1500 E. Caesar Street
Precinct # 14 - Harvey Elementary School, 1301 E. Kenedy Ave.
Precinct # 21 - Kleberg Elementary School, 900 N 6th St. & Nettie
Precinct # 22 - Henrietta Memorial Center, 405 N. 6th Street
Precinct # 23 - University Baptist Church, 1324 N. Armstrong
Precinct # 24 - Santa Gertrudis School, 803 Santa Rosa Road
Precinct # 31 - Knights of Columbus Hall Council 3389, 320 Gen Cavazos Blvd.
Precinct # 32 - Memorial Middle School, 915 S. Armstrong
Precinct # 33/34 - Riviera County Building, 103 N. 7th Street (Riviera)
Precinct # 35 - Ricardo Community Senior Center, 109 N. Nix Street (Ricardo)
Precinct # 41 - Romeo L. Lomas Human Services Building, 1109 E. Santa Gertrudis
Precinct # 42 - Gillett Intermediate School, 1007 N. 17th Street
Here's how to be Sure Your Vote Counts
If you're concerned that you haven't received your mail-in ballot, there are ways to be counted by showing up in person. Officials say ballots are still being sent out with less than a week before Election Day.
Editor's Note: This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. The article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy.
Charles Inge has voted in Dallas County from his home in London, England, for more than three decades, mailing in his overseas ballot while he works across the Atlantic as an architect and academic.
Like clockwork, the 65-year-old requests his mail-in, or absentee ballot, every February, and his November ballot arrives in September. But not this year.
County officials told him to check his inbox’s spam folder, but Inge insists he’s not received it.
“If I get a ballot at all, I guess I’ll have to pay to send it by courier at this point to stand a chance that it will arrive,” said Inge.
There is no way to know yet how many absentee ballots have gone missing or are still en route to voters’ mailboxes or — in the case of overseas voters — inboxes. It hasn’t been a major problem in years past, voters say, but there’s no question that the system is strained by a record number of absentee voters in an election marked by unprecedented turnout, pandemic fears and a high-stakes presidential election.
Registered voters can qualify to vote by mail if they are 65 years or older, cite a disability or an illness, or are confined in jail but still eligible to vote. Voters who will not be in the county where they're registered on Election Day and during the entire early voting period can also request a ballot by mail.
Election officials say mail-in ballots are still being sent to voters through this week, and they will be counted as long as they are postmarked by Tuesday, Election Day, and arrive in county offices by Wednesday.
Inge has a last resort — a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, which is the equivalent of a provisional ballot for overseas and military voters and wouldn’t be counted on Election Day, but would before the final vote canvass.
But if a mail-in voter in the U.S. never receives a ballot and can’t make it back home to vote by Election Day, their options evaporate. The possibility has some Texas voters worried about losing their shot and frustrated about the hoops they’re being forced to jump through to get answers.
In Travis County, elections officials are expecting some 100,000 mail-in ballots to be cast in this election. In Harris County, where officials sent out applications to every registered voter over 65, some 250,000 requests for mail-in ballots were received and are being processed — more than double the number from 2016. In Bexar County, the elections office had mailed out more than 115,000 absentee ballots as of Monday, and more requests are being processed as they come in this week. All those numbers are breaking records, county officials said.
Some absentee voters may not see their ballots hit their mailboxes until Halloween, said Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen, acknowledging the “tight window” that scenario creates for many voters. For those who don’t live in the same county, it’s unlikely that a ballot will arrive in the mail the very next day.
“We’re pushing it,” she said. “But that’s how it works.”
What do you do if you haven’t received your mail-in ballot?
Voters worried about mail-in voting can ensure their ballot is counted by showing up at the polls in person, though that's not an option for some who are out of state.
Joaquin Gonzalez, a voting rights attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said voters can cancel their absentee ballots or ballot applications at county elections headquarters or, in some counties, the polling sites.
That’s what happened to Texas resident Jonathan Van Ness, an expert on the Netflix series “Queer Eye.” His absentee ballot never arrived at the location where he was going to be working on Election Day, but officials told him it had been mailed out Oct. 8, Van Ness wrote in an Instagram post last week.
Van Ness went to the elections office, filled out the paperwork to cancel his ballot, and then took the paperwork to an early voting site. But because the computer system hadn’t yet updated that action in the system, poll workers told him his only option at that moment was to cast a provisional ballot — which he declined to do.
Provisional ballots are a last resort for people who are in the county but can’t or don’t want to cancel their absentee ballots, or whose registration is in question when they vote. They are counted after Election Day if they are found to qualify, but before the official vote canvass is concluded.
“I want my vote counted period, end of story. Provisional is better than not voting but not ideal,” Van Ness wrote.
Another call to the elections office led to officials expediting his cancellation, and he was able to vote later in the day.
“The point is it took me like four hours to make sure my vote would count,” he wrote. “How many other absentee ballots are lost?”
If the ballot has not been sent, voters can cancel the application and vote in person.
Ken Ward and his wife, Breanna, ended up having to take that action because of an error. The Wards showed up to vote early in Beaumont and were told by the election worker that Breanna Ward had requested an absentee ballot and would need to cancel it.
But she had neither asked for nor received a mail-in ballot, she told the worker.
“When my wife reiterated that she wanted to vote then and there, the worker helped her cancel the absentee ballot,” Ken Ward said. “My wife definitely didn’t request the ballot.”
She got to cast a regular ballot, but the confusion was worrisome.
“It was really peculiar,” said Ward. “And we walked away with sort of a sour taste in our mouths. Just because of everything going on in this particular election, you don’t want any hiccups like that — especially ones you’ve never had before.”
Surrendering the ballot
Some voters say they received their mail-in ballots but became worried about whether their votes would be counted if they weren’t cast in person.
Denise Lynn of Hondo, in Medina County outside San Antonio, said she questioned the integrity of the process.
When her absentee ballot didn’t show up at its usual time in September, elections officials initially told her that her ballot was mailed Oct. 5. It arrived Oct. 22. As Republican state leaders waged a war on the expansion of mail-in voting, Lynn worried that her ballot could be invalidated.
She surrendered her mail-in ballot at an in-person polling site and voted on a machine instead.
“They may pull some shenanigans about not counting our mail-in votes, and I didn’t want to take that chance,” said Lynn, 67.
No application processed
If a voter has sent in an application or requested an application, but the application has not been received or processed, that voter can still vote in person with a regular vote with no affidavit required, Gonzalez said.
The absentee ballot will not be mailed if a vote has already been cast, Gonzalez said.
That’s what Bexar County voter Jacob Anderson did when his wife’s absentee ballot showed up, but his did not, he said.
“I waited as long as possible and figured given the situation, I was better off just voting in person, rather than waiting and possibly not getting my absentee ballot in time and not getting to vote at all,” he wrote in an email.
Worried that he wouldn’t be able to cast a ballot, Anderson drove three hours from Montgomery County back home to Bexar, went to an early voting site and was told that since there was no record of his application being processed yet, he could go ahead and cast a regular vote at the machine.
“They said that if it had been mailed to me, their computer would have notified them when I checked in with the first poll worker,” Anderson said. “I signed next to my name and moved on to the voting machine and voted just like I always have.”
Here’s What you can and can’t Wear to Vote in Texas
Wearing T-shirts, buttons or hats supporting political candidates at the polls is illegal. But in the pandemic era, voters are now being reminded that the electioneering rules also apply to face masks.
By Aria Jones , Texas Tribune - October 28, 2020
Wearing T-shirts, buttons or hats supporting political candidates at the polls is illegal. But in the pandemic era, voters are now being reminded that the electioneering rules also apply to face masks.
According to the law, “a person may not electioneer for or against any candidate, measure, or political party” within 100 feet of a polling place. “It's really a protected area that should be just focused on providing the access to the ballot and voting processes without any kind of interruption or any kind of chaos, or stress, or concerns,” said Bruce Sherbet, elections administrator for Collin County.
For years, election officials have had to ask voters to turn their political shirts inside out and leave their accessories in the car. This election cycle, poll workers are also dealing with political messages on some face masks intended to protect voters from the coronavirus.
Sherbet said Collin County judges this year are offering plain disposable masks to cover the political ones, he said. “We strongly encourage masks, so if someone is wearing them, we don't want to be too inconvenient with it as long as they can just cover it up,” Sherbet said.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an electioneering ban at polling places in 1992, meaning that states could create laws to prevent voter intimidation and ban electioneering around polling places.
What can I wear to the polls?
Electioneering specifically includes advocating “for or against any political candidate, measure or political party.” Sherbet said this means while a "Make America Great Again" hat or Joe Biden button would count as electioneering, a Black Lives Matter or “Don’t tread on me” message would not because they are advocating for a movement.
But electioneering could be interpreted and enforced differently across the state.
In 2016, a San Antonio man wore a T-shirt and hat supporting Donald Trump. He removed the hat, but not the “Basket of Deplorables” shirt. He was arrested on electioneering charges.
In 2012, a woman in Williamson County was asked to cover up her shirt that read "Vote the Bible."
“Ultimately, it falls upon local Election Officials to make the final determination as to what constitutes electioneering,” said Stephen Chang, spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office in an email.
According to the secretary of state’s office, voting clerks and election judges decide what counts as electioneering and have the authority to ensure there is no electioneering in that area.
So why are there so many signs and political volunteers outside my polling site?
Within 100 feet of the polls, electioneering is not allowed. But outside of that boundary, campaigns are free to wave signs, hand out fliers, advocate for proposals and wear whatever campaign gear they want.
But campaign volunteers and advocates cannot use sound amplification devices or loudspeakers, which must be 1,000 feet away from the polls.
While those who control or own the building used for voting cannot prohibit electioneering, they can enact reasonable regulations of the time, place and manner electioneering happens. For example, a reasonable regulation would be prohibiting electioneering on sidewalks to keep them clear for pedestrians, according to the secretary of state's office.
What’s the difference between electioneering and voter intimidation?
Voter intimidation is illegal nationally, regardless of where it takes place at a polling location, said David Becker, executive director at the Center for Election Innovation & Research, in an email.
“So, if any conduct goes from being merely expressive to intimidating toward voters, it would be outlawed regardless of where it occurred,” Becker said.
He said generally electioneering is “ordinary campaign activity.”
The difference is that voter intimidation is when someone does “anything that could negatively affect a voter” when they go to vote. This includes making people feel in physical danger or uncomfortable, verbally accosting them and any other activity that someone “shouldn’t have to endure while exercising their most fundamental right,” he said.
The ACLU website says voter intimidation can include aggressively questioning voters about citizenship or criminal record and falsely representing oneself as an elections official. It also includes spreading false information about voter requirements and voter fraud.
What should I do if I see electioneering?
Sherbet said it’s best to tell an election judge at the voting location if you see what could be illegal electioneering. He said they are trained to handle electioneering and if someone notifies the election office, the office will relay the message to the judge at that location.
According to the secretary of state’s office, local voting clerks and election judges decide what counts as electioneering. While serving in that capacity, they have the authority of a district judge to ensure there is no electioneering. If judges or clerks have questions, they can ask their local election office or the secretary of state’s office.
Texas Voters Have to Wear Masks While Voting
The judge ruled that the exemption to Abbott’s statewide face mask mandate put a discriminatory burden on Black and Latino voters. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is poised to hear an appeal.
Texas voters have to wear masks while voting despite Gov. Greg Abbott's exemption, federal judge rules
"Texas voters have to wear masks while voting despite Gov. Greg Abbott's exemption, federal judge rules" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas voters are now required to wear face masks when casting ballots during the pandemic, a federal district judge ruled Tuesday, invalidating an exemption for polling places that Gov. Greg Abbott had included in his statewide mask mandate.
The governor’s mandate for Texans to cover their mouths and noses in public does not apply to polling places, an exclusion that has been challenged as discriminatory against Black and Latino voters who are more likely to be harmed by the coronavirus. Abbott has previously said he encourages voters to wear a face mask, but said he excluded polling places from his mandate to prevent people from being turned away from voting just because they don’t have a mask. Under Abbott’s order, poll workers are also not required to wear masks.
In his temporary ruling, U.S. District Judge Jason Pulliam said the exemption “creates a discriminatory burden on Black and Latino voters.”
Abbott and Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs immediately sought an appeal at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The argument for a mask mandate at the polls was first raised in a much broader lawsuit filed against Abbott and the Texas secretary of state in July by Mi Familia Vota, the Texas NAACP and two Texas voters. The plaintiffs also sought things like a month of early voting, the opening of additional polling places and a suspension of rules that limit who can vote curbside without entering a polling place.
Pulliam, based in San Antonio, had dismissed the lawsuit in September, with Texas having convinced him that the sweeping changes sought to the state’s rules for in-person voting during the pandemic were outside of his jurisdiction as a federal judge. But earlier this month, with early voting already underway, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals punted the case back to Pulliam for him to again review the argument for an across-the-board mask mandate for anyone at a polling place.
The appeals court said that if Pulliam found that Abbott’s decision to not require masks at the polls violated the federal Voting Rights Act’s disallowance of discriminatory voting practices based on race, he would have jurisdiction to order changes.
“Black and Latino Texans … are more likely to become infected and more likely to suffer severe illness or to die of COVID-19. Black and Latino voters in Texas also face longer lines at the polls, increasing their risk of transmission by exposing them to crowds of other voters and poll workers,” the plaintiffs wrote in their renewed argument before Pulliam last week. “Under these conditions, Black and Latino voters must choose between not voting or risking their lives or the lives of their loved ones to vote. White voters do not face the same level of risk.”
The Texas attorney general’s office countered that the majority of states are not requiring masks at polling places and argued that the new legal fight over a potential Voting Rights Act violation is happening too late — after more than 7 million Texans have already cast ballots since early voting began on Oct. 13.
“Texas is on track to smash its prior turnout record, even during the pandemic and in counties with large minority populations,” the state’s filing said.
After the court voided Abbott's exemption, in effect requiring masks at polls, the plaintiffs said it was a "tremendous victory for democracy."
"The Judge has already been vindicated, as last night we received reports of polling officials in Texas testing positive for the coronavirus, and other polling places being required to close down because of sick poll workers," said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP in a statement. "And, this past weekend, we received reports of poll watchers who were using their maskless presence to approach and intimidate minority voters."
Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state's office has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/28/texas-voting-mask-abbott/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Last Day to Apply for a Ballot by Mail
The last day to apply to vote by mail is Friday, October 23.
STCN Staff - October 22, 2020
The last day to apply to vote early by mail for the November 3, 2020 General Election is Friday, October 23, 2020.
To apply for a ballot by mail in Nueces County, voters may print the application online from the Nueces County website or request to have an application mailed to them by e-mailing VoteByMail@nuecesco.com or by calling (361) 888-0385.
To apply by mail for Kleberg County, voters may go to Kleberg County Election website, download the application or call (361) 595-8548 for more information.
Click here for Nueces County or Kleberg County voting times and locations.
Mail-in Ballots can be Rejected if Signatures Don't Match
A federal judge had ordered the state to give voters a chance to resolve signature questions in time for their ballots to be counted. Now that won't happen unless counties do it voluntarily.
Texas can reject mail-in ballots over mismatched signatures without giving
voters a chance to appeal, court rules
By Karen Brooks Harper - October 19, 2020
If they decide the signature on the ballot can't be verified, Texas election officials may continue rejecting mail-in ballots without notifying voters until after the election that their ballot wasn't counted, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
The appeals court halted a lower court’s injunction, which had not gone into effect, that would have required the Texas secretary of state to either advise local election officials that mail-in ballots may not be rejected using the existing signature-comparison process, or require them to set up a notification system giving voters a chance to challenge a rejection while their vote still counts.
Requiring such a process would compromise the integrity of the mail-in ballots “as Texas officials are preparing for a dramatic increase of mail-in voting, driven by a global pandemic,” reads the Monday opinion issued by Judge Jerry E. Smith.
“Texas’s strong interest in safeguarding the integrity of its elections from voter fraud far outweighs any burden the state’s voting procedures place on the right to vote,” Smith wrote.
Before mail-in ballots are counted, a committee of local election officials reviews them to ensure that a voter’s endorsement on the flap of a ballot envelope matches the signature that voter used on their application to vote by mail. They can also compare it to signatures on file with the county clerk or voter registrar that were made within the last six years.
The state election code does not establish any standards for signature review, which is conducted by local election officials who seldom have training in signature verification.
Voters must be notified within 10 days after the election that their ballot was rejected, but state election law does not require affording them an opportunity to challenge the rejection, the appeals court ruling noted.
In August 2019, two voters, George Richardson of Brazos County and Rosalie Weisfeld of McAllen, filed suit after their mail-in ballots were rejected by local officials who decided the signatures on the envelopes in which their ballots were returned were not theirs.
The voters — joined by groups representing Texans with disabilities, veterans and young voters — argued the state law allowing local election officials to reject mail-in ballots based on perceived mismatching signatures violates the 14th Amendment.
The lawsuit claims at least 1,873 mail-in ballots were rejected on the basis of mismatched signatures during the 2018 general election; at least 1,567 were rejected in 2016.
On Sept. 8, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled that the state’s process for matching signatures “plainly violates certain voters’ constitutional rights,” and ordered the state to either abandon the practice or come up with some mechanism that lets voters get their ballots counted.
The injunction has been under an administrative stay by the 5th Circuit since Sept. 11, three days after it was issued, and will now remain on hold while the state challenges the underpinnings of Garcia's decision.
Plaintiffs said they will now push counties to voluntarily give early notice to voters whose ballots are rejected for signature-match issues, allowing them a chance to rectify the situation and let their vote count.
“It will affect this 2020 election, so voters will not be notified in time, and so I think the main thing we’re trying to do now is notify counties that ballot boards are not required to give pre-election day notice, but they can,” said H. Drew Galloway, executive director of MOVE Texas, a plaintiff. “We encourage them to follow the original intent of the lower courts here so folks (whose ballots were rejected) can go vote in person, or contest that decision.”
Texas offers voting by mail to people with disabilities, Texans who are 65 and older, voters who will be outside of the county during an election, and those in jail during an election.
Early Voting is up in Texas
First-day turnout was up just under a percentage point in Texas' 10 biggest counties, but it's unclear whether that trend will continue through Election Day.
Early voting appears up in Texas. It’s too early to know what that means.
By Alex Samuels and Mandi Cai - October 14, 2020
The lines were long at polling locations across Texas on the first day of early voting Tuesday, and some of the state’s biggest counties reported record first-day turnout.
But with reliable data from the state still limited on who is showing up to vote so far, it remains too soon to tell whether the trend will continue through Election Day or what it means for Democrats’ hopes to turn the state blue.
According to the state Democratic Party, over 1 million Texans cast ballots on the first day of early voting. Using data from county election supervisors in the state’s largest 10 counties, home to 57% of registered voters in Texas, The Texas Tribune found that at least 425,028 ballots were cast in-person Tuesday, while at least 224,122 had been sent in by mail. The number of absentee ballots is likely to be higher this year than in previous years because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In 2016, by comparison, 340,006 Texans cast in-person ballots in those 10 counties on the first day of early voting, and 157,277 had cast ballots by mail. That year, the early voting period was shorter by about one week.
From 2016-20, there was a slight increase in the first-day turnout rate in the 10 biggest counties — 5.82% to 6.71%. As of Wednesday, there are 9,678,017 registered voters in those 10 counties. The number is subject to change as counties continue to report registered voters to the state.
The available totals for this year have split observers along party lines: Democrats, who count turning out new voters as their best hope for victory this year, take it as a sign Texas might flip. Republicans say it is par for the course in a competitive election year.
“Right now all we have is one day of early voting under our belts, and we have many more to go, so I’d equate it to a horse race,” said Derek Ryan, a Republican voter data expert. “The Democrats got a good start out the gate, but we’ve still got a whole race to run.”
Harris County, the state’s most populous, had the biggest first-day turnout out of the state’s top 10 counties, according to a Tribune analysis. Nearly 170,000 of the county’s nearly 2.5 million registered voters had cast ballots in person or through mail-in voting as of Wednesday morning. In 2016, by comparison, Harris County had just under 130,000 ballots submitted on the first day.
In Dallas County, nearly 60,000 people had cast in-person ballots, according to a county report. In addition, more than 33,000 submitted their ballots by mail, according to the Texas secretary of state.
But what that means about who will win Texas remains an open question. High first-day turnout can be a sign of new voters going to the polls — or it can be a sign of shifting habits. Are more people voting? Or are the people who would normally be expected to vote simply showing up earlier? Those questions are difficult to answer so early in the process.
The state’s voting numbers were incomplete Wednesday, meaning it was also difficult to tell whether high first-day turnout was being replicated in smaller counties across Texas. The state’s urban centers tend to lean more Democratic, and it’s not immediately clear to what extent there are similar trends in the state’s more rural counties that lean Republican.
Still, Wednesday’s numbers had Democrats excited.
In a statement, the Texas Democratic Party cheered the sheer number of Texans going to the polls and took it as a sign that the state may be in play later this fall.
“Across our state, Texas Democrats are fired up, voting, and ready to win,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, the party’s chair. “The first day of early voting was great but we still know that there is a lot of work to do and plenty of votes to be cast.”
The 10 most populous counties in the state are Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, Collin, Denton, El Paso, Fort Bend and Hidalgo. Mail ballot data for Dallas and Fort Bend counties came from the secretary of state. Other data came directly from the counties.
Early voting runs through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Voters Disagree on Top Issues
Texas voters' disagreements on candidates are mirrored by differences over top priorities and problems, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
Texas voters disagree on top issues, as well as candidates, UT/TT Poll finds
By Ross Ramsey - October 14, 2020
Texas voters are casting their ballots with widely different opinions about the most important problems facing the country and the state of Texas, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
The most important issue facing the country right now is the coronavirus/COVID-19, chosen by 18% of registered voters, followed by political corruption/leadership (14%) and the economy (10%).
What’s most important depends on who’s talking, however. Among Democrats, the most important issues facing the U.S. are coronavirus/COVID-19 (29%), political corruption/leadership (20%) and health care (11%). Republicans rank problems differently: moral decline (18%), the economy (13%) and political corruption/leadership (11%).
When it comes to problems facing the state, voters’ top items are coronavirus/COVID-19 (22%) and immigration/border security (16%). But the partisan differences are great. Immigration/border security top the list for 30% of Republicans, followed by coronavirus/COVID (13%). The pandemic is the top item for 33% of Democrats, followed by political corruption/leadership (10%).
Likely voters were also asked what issue was most important to them in choosing who to support for president, an open-ended question that let voters name any issue. The resulting list was led by the economy (11%) and “removing Trump from office” (8%). Among Republicans, the economy (15%) led the list, followed by “socialism and/or communism” (12%). Democrats topped their list with removing the president (19%), followed by coronavirus/COVID-19 (11%) and health care (9%).
That informed their choices for president. The poll found that 50% support President Donald Trump, the Republican, while 45% support former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat.
How’s it going?
Texas voters are more negative about the way things are going for the country and the state than they were a year ago, the poll found.
Only 29% said the country is going in the right direction; 41% said the state is on the right track. A year ago, 37% liked the direction of the U.S. and 47% said Texas was on the right track.
Voters’ negative assessments have risen at the same time, with 62% now saying the country is on the wrong track, up from 54% in October 2019. The state’s grades are better, but not good: 44% of voters said Texas is on the wrong track, up from 35% a year ago.
Republican voters in Texas like the direction of things better than Democrats do. While 54% of Republicans think the country is on the right track, only 5% of Democrats do. A larger majority of Republicans — 70% — said Texas is on the right track; only 13% of Democrats agreed.
The economy
Most voters said either that they and their families are economically better off than a year ago (23%) or about the same (44%). But 31% said they are worse off now than then, a circumstance reported by 37% of Hispanic voters, 31% of Black voters and 30% of white voters. More Democrats (41%) said their family economics had worsened than Republicans (19%).
In an October 2019 UT/TT Poll, 77% of Texas voters said they were economically better off or in the same place compared with the year before, and 16% said they were worse off.
“You still see partisan differences, but those partisan differences can’t erase the intensity of what people are experiencing with both the pandemic and the economy,” said James Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “It doesn’t mean the partisan filters go away, but they’ve got a lot more to contend with now.”
The same drops are repeated in economic assessments of the country and the state.
Most registered voters in Texas — 67% — said the national economy is in worse shape than it was a year ago. Another 17% said it has improved and 13% said it’s about the same. The Republican view of things is rosier than the Democratic one. Among Republicans, 28% said the U.S. economy is better than it was a year ago, while 16% said it’s about the same and 54% said it has worsened. Only 8% of Democrats said the national economy is better, while 9% said it’s unchanged and 82% said it is worse off than it was a year ago.
The state economy has improved, according to 15% of Texas voters, while 24% said it’s about the same as it was a year ago and 56% said it has worsened. Among Republicans, 25% said it’s better, 31% said it’s about the same and 40% said it has worsened. Democrats were harsher in their assessment: 6% said the economy is better than a year ago, 18% said it’s about the same and 73% said Texas is in worse shape economically than it was a year ago.
The University of Texas/Texas Tribune internet survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 4 and has an overall margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points. The margin of error for results from 908 likely voters is +/- 3.25 percentage points. Numbers in charts might not add up to 100% because of rounding.
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Reference UT/TT Poll, October 2020, Summary/Methodology (277.9 KB) Reference UT/TT Poll, October 2020, Crosstabs (1.5 MB)
"Texas voters disagree on top issues, as well as candidates, UT/TT Poll finds" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/14/politics-issues-texas/ by The Texas Tribune.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
Polling Locations for Kleberg County
Early voting will be held at the Annex Building located at 720 E. King Ave. in Kingsville from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. except on Monday, October 26 and Tuesday, October 27, early voting will be from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
South Texas Community News - October 12, 2020
Early voting for Kleberg County will take place on Tuesday, October 13th and will end on Friday, October 30th. Early voting will be held at the Annex Building located at 720 E. King Ave. in Kingsville from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. except on Monday, October 26 and Tuesday, October 27, early voting will be from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Kleberg County Polling Locations for November 3, 2020
Joint General and Special Election Polling locations will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Precinct # 11 - Wild Horse Mall - Main Entrance, 1601 S. Highway 77
Precinct # 12 - H. M. King High School, 2210 Brahma Blvd
Precinct # 13 - Coastal Bend Fellowship Church, 1500 E. Caesar Street
Precinct # 14 - Harvey Elementary School, 1301 E. Kenedy Ave.
Precinct # 21 - Kleberg Elementary School, 900 N 6th St. & Nettie
Precinct # 22 - Henrietta Memorial Center, 405 N. 6th Street
Precinct # 23 - University Baptist Church, 1324 N. Armstrong
Precinct # 24 - Santa Gertrudis School, 803 Santa Rosa Road
Precinct # 31 - Knights of Columbus Hall Council 3389, 320 Gen Cavazos Blvd.
Precinct # 32 - Memorial Middle School, 915 S. Armstrong
Precinct # 33/34 - Riviera County Building, 103 N. 7th Street (Riviera)
Precinct # 35 - Ricardo Community Senior Center, 109 N. Nix Street (Ricardo)
Precinct # 41 - Romeo L. Lomas Human Services Building, 1109 E. Santa Gertrudis
Precinct # 42 - Gillett Intermediate School, 1007 N. 17th Street
2020’s Top Races Won’t set Spending Records
Two years ago in Texas, interest and election turnout were juiced by a $125 million race for U.S. Senate. This year's ballot is topped by an extraordinary race for president, but the political spending at the top won't match 2018.
Analysis: Unlike the 2018 election in Texas, 2020’s top races won’t set spending records
"Analysis: Unlike the 2018 election in Texas, 2020’s top races won’t set spending records" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here.
If you would like to listen to the column, just click on the play button below.
(Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.)
Beto O’Rourke’s run at U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz two years ago doesn’t get the credit it’s due for upending the financial model for a statewide federal race in a big state like Texas.
MJ Hegar’s Senate race this year illustrates the problem challengers face here. The size of the state, and the expense of running in a place this big and with this many expensive television markets, keeps Texas races off the national party and political action committee lists of top targets every election cycle.
It’s an inefficient investment, from a national point of view. Even if you think you can beat an incumbent — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, for example — it’s cheaper to support challengers in smaller, less expensive states.
From that national perspective, the prize in a Senate race is the same, no matter where you win. So why not invest where it’s cheap, preserving money that might be wasted in a big state for use in smaller states where you can reach a majority of voters for far less?
Much of O’Rourke’s money was non-institutional, raised both in and out of state from small donors reached online. By luck and design, he financed his statewide campaign without having to get the attention of the people in those national political strategy sessions in Washington. They were doing what they generally do, spending most of their money in what were seen as winnable races in states where campaigning is cheaper.
Still, that 2018 race between Cruz and O’Rourke was the most expensive in the country, with just over $125 million spent by the two campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Cruz, who spent $45.6 million, defeated O’Rourke, who spent $79.1 million. But the close finish (a 2.6 percentage point gap) at the top of the ticket closed up other races.
Republicans in statewide contests still enjoyed what has become a customary sweep, but their margins were cut and are often used as evidence that Texas might not be as reliably Republican as it was just a few years ago. The Democrats won two congressional seats held by Republicans, and picked up a couple of seats in the Texas Senate and a dozen in the Texas House.
Maybe Texas has moved from the red political column into the purple one. The GOP strength in the state’s suburbs has been weakening, and national and out-of-state political pundits have been infected with the “Is Texas turning blue?” speculation familiar to the state’s natives.
Another possibility has to be included in the argument: Having a big spender, even a loser, in a race at the top of the ticket helps a political party’s down-ballot candidates. O’Rourke lost, but the excitement around that campaign — by both Democratic and Republican voters — boosted turnout for that midterm election to presidential election levels.
In 2020, presidential-level turnout should be a given. It’s hard to hide from a national race. But the state no longer has straight-ticket voting, as it did in 2018 (this is in litigation, but straight-ticket voting is dead for the moment), raising a question about how a good showing at the top of the ticket might help a party’s down-ballot candidates. And the campaigns at the top of the ticket aren’t spending big money in Texas.
New reports are due in the next few days, but through mid-year, according to CRP, the Senate race in Texas — with Cornyn and Hegar and the candidates who lost to them in the Republican and Democratic primaries — saw lower spending than contests in smaller states: Kentucky, Arizona, South Carolina, Maine, Michigan and Colorado.
To be fair, Hegar’s July report reflected the high spending and low cash-on-hand totals one might expect from a candidate who was then in the middle of a primary runoff election, and she’s getting some help from U.S. Senate Democrats. The numbers then were lopsided in Cornyn’s favor: He had $14.5 million on hand to her $900,000. And you’ve seen the results on television, among other places. The incumbent has been advertising for weeks. Hegar’s commercials have been sparse in comparison.
This is not a requiem. Far from it: Texas is still in pre-game mode. Early voting starts in two weeks (this is also in the courts, but currently on for Oct. 13). Presidential debates have begun. Hegar and Cornyn have a debate scheduled for Oct. 9. Texans can register to vote until Oct. 5.
The season is here. Voting will be over in five weeks, and we’ll have answers to all of our burning questions some time after that. A couple of those questions are related to finance and political trends. Was the 2018 election in Texas — with its high turnout and close races — the result of a spectacular and expensive competition for Senate? Or was it evidence of a more engaged and more evenly divided electorate?
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/30/Texas-elections-2020-spending/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texans with Disabilities are Eligible for Mail-in Voting
Disability rights activists say they’re worried the confusion may deter at-risk Texans from voting or cause them to needlessly put their health at risk to show up in person at the polls despite being eligible for mail-in voting.
Texans with disabilities are eligible for mail-in voting, but people must decide for themselves if they qualify
"Texans with disabilities are eligible for mail-in voting, but people must decide for themselves if they qualify" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day's latest updates. Sign up here.
Citing a disability is among the few reasons that Texans can qualify to vote by mail during the pandemic this November — in addition to being 65 or older, being outside of their county during the election, or being confined to jail but otherwise eligible to vote.
But in recent months, what counts as a disability in Texas has been politicized and litigated. The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that a lack of immunity to the coronavirus is not in itself enough to qualify. Beyond that, the court ruled that voters should decide for themselves if their medical situations meet the state’s criteria.
State law defines a disability as a “sickness or physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place on Election Day without a likelihood of needing personal assistance or of injuring the voter’s health.” It gets specific only in saying that “expected or likely confinement for childbirth on election day is sufficient.”
Aside from that, voters are largely left to interpret the law for themselves.
“Individuals are being left up to themselves to make some pretty big eligibility decisions on their own, which can be nerve-wracking and make citizens very concerned about whether or not their choices are justifiable or not,” said Molly Broadway, voting rights specialist at Disability Rights Texas. “A lot of voters are concerned about, will they truly be seen as having a disability for those who do have disabilities?”
Texas is one of five states that hasn’t made mail-in ballots available to those afraid of contracting COVID-19. During a typical year, Texas is one of only 16 states that doesn’t offer no-excuse mail-in voting, which allows voters to request ballots for any reason.
Texans have had the option to cite disability as a reason to receive mail-in ballots since 1935, just two years after the first use of voting by mail. Advocates say the system may have some flaws, but it serves to increase access for many disabled people.
“Our recommendation to most people is, if you can vote by mail, we highly encourage it,” said Donna Meltzer, CEO of the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities. “We think that [helps] keep people with disabilities — who are much more vulnerable to contracting COVID or having greater health conditions — safe and healthy.”
In April, state Democrats and civil rights organizations argued in court that susceptibility to the coronavirus meets the state’s definition for disability. In May, the Texas Supreme Court sided with Attorney General Ken Paxton and ruled that lack of immunity to the virus is not a “physical condition,” and therefore the risk of contracting the virus does not meet the state’s qualifications.
But the court also ruled that voters could evaluate their own health and medical history to determine if they should apply for mail-in ballots during the pandemic based on a disability, as long as they have a “correct understanding of the statutory definition of ‘disability.’”
Abhi Rahman, spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party, said he believes Texans are going to decide for themselves if they have conditions that qualify as disabilities for mail-in voting.
“Voters are smart enough to make their own decisions, whether or not they want to claim a disability, for whatever disability they might have,” Rahman said. “And really the secretary of state and election officials — they can’t check what the disability actually is. So if voters feel like they are disabled in any way, they should vote in whatever way they’re comfortable with voting in this election.”
On the application to vote by mail, voters are asked to check a box confirming they have a disability and aren’t required to provide any other details.
Voters haven’t been required to provide documentation for their disabilities since 1981, but when filling out their applications, they certify that the information is correct and that they understand giving false information is a crime.
Local election officials, who oversee the distribution of mail-in ballots, do not have the authority to verify a voter’s disability status.
But election experts say it’s unclear whether the Texas attorney general’s office would try to pursue the issue. Paxton and other Texas Republican officials have attacked efforts to broaden mail-in voting as a “threat to Democracy.”
“I applaud the Texas Supreme Court for ruling that certain election officials’ definition of ‘disability’ does not trump that of the Legislature, which has determined that widespread mail-in balloting carries unacceptable risks of corruption and fraud,” Paxton said after the Supreme Court decision. “Election officials have a duty to reject mail-in ballot applications from voters who are not entitled to vote by mail. In-person voting is the surest way to maintain the integrity of our elections, prevent voter fraud and guarantee that every voter is who they claim to be.”
Instances of voter fraud are incredibly rare, and there’s a lack of comprehensive data on the subject. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, lists 1,071 instances since 1982 of proven voter fraud in the U.S. None of the examples include voters incorrectly citing disabilities.
If the attorney general were to pursue a case against someone, citing false information given about a disability, the burden of proof would be on the state to prove a voter isn’t disabled, said Joaquin Gonzalez, attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“They couldn’t just force a voter to prove their disability. They would have to have some evidence showing that the voter was fraudulently claiming it in the first place,” Gonzalez said.
The attorney general’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Bob Kafka, organizer at ADAPT Texas, a disability advocacy grassroots organization, said the attorney general’s messaging alone is enough to intimidate voters.
“The bottom line is 99% of people with disabilities or people that might be in jeopardy of contracting COVID are totally confused,” Kafka said. “Unfortunately, it has the effect of intimidation. Whether that’s the goal or not, the end result is when you’re threatened with a felony of voting fraud, whether its intent is intimidation, its end result is intimidation."
Disability rights activists say they’re worried the confusion may deter at-risk Texans from voting, or cause them to needlessly put their health at risk to show up in person at the polls despite being eligible for mail-in voting.
Kafka said he and other activists spoke with Secretary of State Ruth Hughs and were assured that county clerks would not ask people who checked the “disability” box to verify their disabilities. But as the attorney general continues to release what Kafka says are “threatening” statements, activists still are not sure it’s enough to convince people to vote.
“We are not promoting voter fraud, but we also don’t want people not to vote,” Kafka said. “We already have one of the most restrictive mail in-ballot processes in the whole country.”
The secretary of state’s office declined to comment for this story.
Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/18/texas-mail-in-voting-disabilities/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
U.S. Supreme Court has rejected voting by mail to all Texas voters during the coronavirus pandemic
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an initial bid by state Democrats to expand voting by mail to all Texas voters during the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. Supreme Court declines Texas Democrats' request to allow all Texans to vote by mail
"U.S. Supreme Court declines Texas Democrats' request to allow all Texans to vote by mail" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an initial bid by state Democrats to expand voting by mail to all Texas voters during the coronavirus pandemic.
Justice Samuel Alito — whose oversight of federal courts includes cases coming through Texas — on Friday issued the court's denial of the Texas Democratic Party’s request to let a federal district judge's order to expand mail-in voting take effect while the case is on appeal. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled in May that Texas must allow all voters fearful of becoming infected at polling places to vote by mail even if they wouldn’t ordinarily qualify for mail-in ballots under state election law. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Biery's order while Texas appeals his ruling.
The decision means the state’s strict rules to qualify for ballots that can be filled out at home will remain in place for the July 14 primary runoff election, for which early voting starts Monday. Under current law, mail-in ballots are available only if voters are 65 or older, cite a disability or illness, will be out of the county during the election period or are confined in jail.
Still left pending is the Democrats separate request for the justices to take up their case before the November general election. The party’s case focuses primarily on the claim that the state's age restrictions for voting by mail violate the 26th Amendment's protections against voting restrictions that discriminate based on age.
The court's only comment on the decision came from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said she agrees with the ruling but indicated the Democrats' case "raises weighty but seemingly novel questions regarding the Twenty-Sixth Amendment" and urged the appeals court to consider the case in a timely manner before the general election.
"But I hope that the Court of Appeals will consider the merits of the legal issues in this case well in advance of the November election," Sotomayor said.
In order for someone to vote by mail in the July 14 primary runoffs, counties must receive their application for a mail-in ballot by July 2. A favorable decision for Democrats by the Supreme Court by early October could still allow for a massive expansion in voting by mail during the November general election.
In his initial ruling, Biery agreed with individual Texas voters and the Texas Democratic Party that voters would face irreparable harm if existing age eligibility rules for voting by mail remain in place for elections held while the coronavirus remains in wide circulation. And he agreed with the plaintiffs' argument that the age limitation violates the U.S. Constitution because it imposes additional burdens on voters who are younger than 65 during the pandemic.
In his appeal to the 5th Circuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Biery's injunction threatened "irreparable injury" to the state "by injecting substantial confusion into the Texas voting process mere days before ballots are distributed and weeks before runoff elections."
Democrats and voting rights groups have been fighting the state's restrictions on multiple fronts, but have been so far unsuccessful in making mail-in ballots available to all voters during the pandemic. In a separate case, the Texas Supreme found last month that lack of immunity alone does not meet the state election code's definition of disability, but it could be considered a factor as part of a voter’s medical situation.
The Texas election code defines disability as a “sickness or physical condition” that prevents a voter from appearing in person without the risk of “injuring the voter’s health.” And the Texas Supreme Court reiterated that it is up to voters to assess their own health and determine if they meet the election code's definition of disability.
But the litigation has left some voters confused about the rules, and some who may actually be eligible to vote by mail are instead considering risking exposure to the virus.
“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court did not weigh in now and provide needed relief and clarity for voters ahead of the primary runoff," Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a Friday statement. “The case proceeds on in other filings before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit and therefore, hope remains that the federal courts will restore equal voting rights in time for the November elections."
In a statement following the ruling, Paxton said the court's decision tracks Texas law. "State election officials have many options available to safely and securely hold elections without risking widespread fraud," Paxton said.
There are documented cases of fraud in mail-in voting in Texas. But like voter fraud overall, it remains rare.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/26/us-supreme-court-rejects-texas-democrats-effort-expand-absentee-voting/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.