Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's order restricting counties to one absentee ballot drop-off location has been upheld by a U.S. federal appeals court panel this week, just a few days after a federal judge blocked it, NBC News reports.
Democrats and voting rights groups filed a lawsuit over the governor's order, arguing that it suppresses voting opportunities. District Judge Robert Pitman agreed with them and halted the order in a ruling last Friday, noting that "the public interest is not served by Texas' continued enforcement of a proclamation plaintiffs have shown likely violates their fundamental right to vote."
However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit found that "the district court erred" in its ruling.
The 5th Circuit sided with Texas Secretary of State Ruth Ruggero Hughs, who told the court that "the proclamation is part of the forty-day expansion of Texans' opportunities to hand-deliver absentee ballots beyond what state election rules normally permit," which Abbott issued in October.
Hughs argued that "the proclamation refines that expanded voting period by specifying where ballots are to be delivered. But it leaves the enlarged period in place, and also does nothing to prevent Texans from mailing in their absentee ballots, as they have done in the past in election after election."
"Leaving the governor's October 1 proclamation in place still gives Texas absentee voters many ways to cast their ballots in the November 3 election," the court ruled. "These methods for remote voting outstrip what Texas law previously permitted in a pre-Covid world. The October 1 proclamation abridges no one's right to vote."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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