Texas Must Let Counties Offer Multiple Ballot Drop Boxes

A federal judge in Austin, Texas, blocked the state’s Republican governor from restricting counties to a single drop-box location for people who don’t trust the post office to deliver their mail-in ballots in time to be counted.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Oct. 1 limited all counties -- regardless of their size or population -- to a single drop-off location so poll watchers could more effectively monitor for mail-ballot fraud. Critics called the move a naked attempt at voter suppression because there is scant evidence of voting fraud and mail-ballot drop boxes are already as secure as regular polling locations.

Texas voters are required to show photo ID and sign a register before personally handing in mail ballots at drop-off spots, just as they must do when voting at the polls.

Harris County, which encompasses much of Houston, has for weeks advertised a dozen secure mail ballot drop-box locations to serve 2.4 million registered voters spread across 2,000 square miles. The county that includes the capitol city of Austin planned four drop-boxes. Both counties have increasingly voted for Democratic candidates in recent elections.

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Rolling back the governor’s order, which had closed drop-off locations after early voting had already begun, would “reduce or eliminate what would amount to executive-caused voter confusion on the eve of an election,” U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said.

The ruling came the day after an Ohio federal judge’s decision in a similar case, where intransigent Ohio election officials were ordered to allow multiple remote drop-off locations for voters wanting to hand-deliver their mail ballots to avoid postal delays.

Kayleigh Date, a spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General’s office, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling, which was issued late Friday evening.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily put Pitman’s order on hold Saturday while it considers Texas’s bid to reinstate the governor’s restrictions.