Texas Ordered to Allow All Votes by Mail Due to Virus, ACLU Says

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Bloomberg

Texas must let any registered voter afraid of catching coronavirus vote by mail in November’s presidential election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The bench ruling by U.S. District Judge Tim Sulak in Austin came hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, stated that voters without physical conditions or illnesses that prevent their voting at the polls will be denied mail-in ballots.

The ruling, which is not yet publicly available, sets up yet another showdown between Texas’s Republican political leadership and civil-rights groups.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-15/texas-ordered-to-allow-all-votes-by-mail-because-of-virus-aclu?srnd=politics-vp

[cayugafalls]

1. This is good news for everyone. nt

[turbinetree]

2. There attorney general and the legislature lost the case

there letter is just plain dangerous in there thinking...........they just didn't give a shit, so what if you die, its not an excuse or a disability, just gotta love those right to life assholes in that legislature and the governor and attorney general........this virus just exposes the hypocrisy of the Texas power brokers in the state ........they don't care about life.............just power.............

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/admin/2020/Press/4.14.20%20Letter%20to%20Rep.%20Klick.pdf?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

[whistler162]

17. please pull over to the side of the forum

You realize that you were using there, location, instead of their, ownership. This time we will just issue a warning but next time it will be a ticket. Please remember to buckle up and install Grammarly or ProWritingAid.

https://www.diffen.com/difference/Their_vs_There

[forgotmylogin]

3. Nice, but how about

"States must let any citizen vote by mail at their preference" instead?

Like they're gonna somehow screen people for symptoms when they request to vote absentee?

[niyad]

4. Between Putin and the voter-hating pukes, it is a wonder we still have elections. It should be asked

of every single puke engaged in, or even just supporting, voter suppression tactics, why the hell they are even IN this country, since ther have such utter hatred and contempt for its foundational principles.

scotus will no doubt overturn this.

[SheltieLover]

5. Excellent!

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[rolypolychloe]

6. not a fan of mail votes

The presumption is that election workers are non-partison, but that is not the case. In the Trump/Gore race, election workers steered anyone that didn't look Republican to the wrong voting machine. They came up with all kinds of weird, exotic explanations of how Pat Buchanan got so many black votes, but it was as simple as steering black voters to the wrong machine.

Mail adds another level of partisan mischief. If your name doesn't look Republican, maybe your absentee ballot doesn't get mailed at all, or your Republican postal worker doesn't deliver it to you, or trashes it when you send it back or maybe the election worker trashes it.

If your name sounds Republican, then mail is fine. Otherwise, you better show up at the polls if you want your vote to count.

[spike jones]

9. In the Washington primary, voters had to write a party preference on the OUTSIDE of the envelope.

I heard that will not happen again. I have always taken mine to the drop box beside the courthouse.

[babylonsister]

10. How does a name look republican?

There are a few states that have mail-in ballots, FL being one of them, and it works just fine.
Also, military and people overseas have been doing the mail-in for a long time.

Mailing in would preclude catching this virus; I see no downside.

[Scruffy1]

11. No letter carrier is going to not deliver the mail because of politics.

First of all, its a firing and criminal offense. Secondly USPS employees take pride in their work. Lastly, you could count the number of Republican postal employees with one hand. That is the reason "the thing from hell" hates them.

[royable]

15. Repug postal employees are not nonexistant. One delivers the mail in my neighborhood

by truck every couple weeks as a substitute for the regular delivery person--and he always has the truck's radio blaring white-wing blather talk radio.

[TomSlick]

23. Sure, there are Republican - even MAGA - postal employees

but I doubt any (or at least many) are going to gamble their job and freedom to deep-six ballots. Postal workers I know take pride in their work and are no more eager to go to federal prison than anyone else.

[babylonsister]

20. My

USPS guy has limbaugh on BLAST, but this is FL.

[rolypolychloe]

30. That is how it is supposed to be.

But that is not how it is. If you have ever watched Seinfield, Jerry took over Newmans mail route and got in trouble because he delivered all the mail, not the usual half. The episode was funny because everyone believes that to be true. I only get half my mail and only half my mail gets sent. I complain to the postmaster, but she just says "Prove it". The only way to prove it is to send certified mail. THAT mail gets delivered, because there is an audit trail. I have been forced to do all my financial business online since the mail is demonstrably untrustworthy. I once took out an ad in a local newsletter and was shocked when she said it was a weekly. Really?, I only get it every two months. She was rather upset to hear that. She pays postage, same as everyone else, and had an expectation that the newsletters would be delivered. She called a sample of her customers to verify what I said was true, then screamed at the postmaster. The newsletter was then delivered weekly for a whole two months.

So, the point is that postal workers are people, same as everyone else. Some will do things they ought not to do if they don't think they will get caught. Same with election workers. They are people, and some will do things they ought not to do if they don't think they will be caught. Particularly worrisome, is that many districts use volunteers or temporary workers during elections. No chance of partisanship there!

I would feel better if absentee ballots were handled with certified mail. There would be a record that is was sent, that it was delivered, that the recipient sent it back, that the election office received it, that every received ballot showed up in the count. An audit trail, just to keep everyone honest.

[TeamPooka]

16. Regarding that conspiracy theory: Are you sure you have the right website?

[DENVERPOPS]

18. Bingo,

Right on. Everyone thinks mail in ballots are fool proof.........There are a large number of ways that they can be tampered with besides the ways you stated.....

[TomSlick]

24. So let's do it this way.

All voting must be in person and only on election day. Polls should be open only from 9:00 a.m to noon and then from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time. Anyone in line when the polls close (either at noon or 4:30 p.m.) will be turned away. Voters must present two current forms of government-issued photo ID, a certified copy of their birth certificate (long form, of course), and a recent utility bill showing current residence in the precinct. Poll workers will engage all prospective voters in sufficient conversation to ensure they are both sober and sufficiently informed to vote. Whether any prospective voter lacks any of the above qualifications is decided in the sole discretion of the head poll worker at the polling place - no provisional ballots allowed.

In case its' needed:

[Tweedy]

19. From where are you getting this?

Do you have a link to an occurrence like this in modern history?

So far as I can tell, voting by mail works just fine.
Ask Washington.
Ask Colorado.

[DENVERPOPS]

26. There are holes

in the Colorado vote by mail. They have addressed some of them, but it is still a work in progress.

[leftieNanner]

21. We have 100% VBM in Oregon

And it works just fine. I put my sealed ballot in a drop box near the library. We are a predominantly blue state, but in 2016, Oregon elected a Republican SOS (who has subsequently died), and my Congress Critter is (sadly) a republican.

When we lived in California, I worked as Poll Inspector for many years and I'm as passionate a Democrat as you will find. But I took my job very seriously and made sure everyone was able to vote fairly. I got to know a lot of the higher-ups in the County Elections Board and they were very honorable people. There is a possibility of shenannigans in any kind of election (particularly electronic voting machines), but with VBM, you have paper ballots that can be recounted and audited.

Sorry, rolypolychloe, but I don't agree with your post.

[Qutzupalotl]

29. +1, fellow Oregonian

Vote by mail is easy, convenient (you can vote in your living room with your voter guide handy) and gives us high turnout, around 80% even in off years.

High turnout is good for us and it will be good for Texas!

[spike jones]

7. This is one of the reasons the GOP wants to privatize the postal service.

Corporate America gets to decide which ballots are delivered to the counting places.

[Tweedy]

22. Always thought the GOP hated the post office

Because the post office delivers to rural routes, none of the private carriers do. So, if the GOP could get rid of the post offices in farm country, the GOP donors in big Agriculture could squeeze some more blood out of the turnips up there by making them pay the "market rate" for delivery and receipt of mail, and packages.

Did you know few farmers own their seed anymore? They have to buy seed every year.

Did you know farmers don't own their tractors (or other basic farm equipment)?
Farmers lease their tractors forever, like a very expensive cable box. Farmers have to pay ten times the price to repair something that they can do for themselves at cost.

Did you know healthcare in rural areas is for the birds?* & other farm animals. Hospitals get worse as funding supplies dry up. Health insurance is tough, especially in a red state.

And yet, farmers (who have to think, plan and reason to survive, much less thrive) vote GOP.

It is a sad thing to see. I grieve for farm country.

[qazplm135]

8. yeah 5th Circuit isn't going to agree

neither are the Supremes.

Best path is to try to go through State courts where we have a majority.

[not_the_one]

25. The Supremes have already said, essentially, that "elections are a states rights issue"

and can do anything they want to, INCLUDING gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc. Gore V Bush being the exception

I can only assume the states have the right to decide if voting by mail is acceptable...

They Sups can't have it both ways. But I am sure they will try.

edit in bold

[onetexan]

12. take that crooked Paxton

[iluvtennis]

13. Another win for democracy. Thank you ACLU. nt

[Judi Lynn]

14. Exactly the right place for a good ruling, for a change. n/t

[Cha]

27. We Better have a Post Office by November!

[lark]

28. SCOTUS wants to kill us too, so can't celebrate any lower court victory, murderers will overturn it.

They want total chaos so drumpf can declare martial law and stop the election. Those are the circumstances drumpf is trying to create right now. RW has heard him and totally gunned up to take things into their own hands if people complain or riot about not being allowed to vote safely. You know the fucking fascist murderers in the red states will shut down almost all if ot all precincts in blue districts but zero will be shut down in rural or red places. They hate us and want to kill us to get rid of what they perceive as a drain and to steal all SS & Medicare funds. They are deliberately destroying the economy to force us back to work so we can die. They refuse testing, because that would prevent dying and they want mass deaths and chaos come 11/20.

WE will just have to gear up and do what is necessary, walk over ground glass if that's required, but we HAVE to GOTV or we will be just like Russian peassants, desperate, sick and barely affording to eat. That is their fascist goal and we are the only people that can stop it.

[not_the_one]

31. I think this is good because it allows you to keep a photo copy of your vote...

IF democrats challenge an outcome, at least they can get actual copies of the votes to re-count.

Pain in the ass, sure, but if we want it bad enough we will do what is necessary.