Fifth Circuit Revives Texas Limit on Ballot Drop-Off Sites
(CN) — The Fifth Circuit reinstated Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s controversial limit of one absentee ballot drop-off box per county early Tuesday morning, rejecting voter suppression arguments and agreeing with the state that Abbott has actually expanded voter access by allowing drop-offs beyond Election Day.
A three-judge panel with the New Orleans-based appeals court unanimously ruled in an opinion released shortly after midnight that Abbott’s executive order – one of several responding to the Covid-19 pandemic – is valid. All three judges are appointees of President Donald Trump.
“Leaving the Governor’s October 1 proclamation in place still gives Texas absentee voters many ways to cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 election,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote. “These methods for remote voting outstrip what Texas law previously permitted in the pre-Covid world. The October 1 proclamation abridges no one’s right to vote.”
The ruling most notably affects Travis and Harris counties, which must keep closed three and 11 respective extra drop-off sites that they operated before Abbott’s order.
https://www.courthousenews.com/fifth-circuit-revives-texas-limit-on-ballot-drop-off-sites/
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