Federal judge blocks Texas Gov. Abbott’s order limiting ballot drop-off sites to just 1 per county
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge late Friday blocked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order limiting ballot drop-off to one location per county, backing Democrats’ concerns of voter suppression.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said the order placed an unacceptable burden on the voting rights of elderly and disabled Texans, a group likely to request an absentee ballot.
The judge’s decision noted sick and elderly voters are especially vulnerable to Covid-19, ABC affiliate KVUE reported.
“By limiting ballot return centers to one per county, older and disabled voters living in Texas’s largest and most populous counties must travel further distances to more crowded ballot return centers where they would be at an increased risk of being infected by the coronavirus in order to exercise their right to vote and have it counted,” Pitman said.
Pitman said if absentee voters choose not to deliver their ballot in person to avoid contracting the coronavirus, they risk disenfranchisement if the U.S. Postal Service is unable to deliver their ballots in time.
“By forcing absentee voters to risk infection with a deadly disease to return their ballots in person or disenfranchisement if [USPS] is unable to deliver their ballots in time, the October 1 Order imposes a burden on an already vulnerable voting population,” he said.
Last week, Gov. Abbott issued a proclamation that restricted counties to having just one mail-in ballot drop-off location for each county.
Quickly thereafter, multiple groups sued the governor.
