In Texas, a federal judge blocked GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s order limiting ballot drop boxes to one per county, saying it violated Texans’ “fundamental right to vote under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” Abbott claimed removing drop boxes was necessary to prevent voting fraud, a virtually non-existent problem. Democrats called it voter suppression. Read story here.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a Trump-appointed judge shot down Republican to have ballot drop boxes declared unconstitutional altogether. Read that story here.
Eliminating ballot drop boxes ties into a Republican strategy of trying to force voters to vote in-person. So does Trump’s attacks on mail voting, which have included intentionally disrupting mail delivery (which had the side effect of holding up seniors’ prescription refills). And across the country, Republican lawyers have fought doggedly, with some success, to prevent expanded mail voting in response to the coronavirus crisis.
It would be wrong to assume these efforts merely reflect a Republican preference for in-person voting. They’re trying to make that as difficult as possible, too, by closing polling locations, removing voting machines, and forcing voters to wait in long lines for hours. It all adds up to a massive campaign — coordinated, well-financed, and backed by legions of lawyers — to keep turnout low and discourage targeted groups from voting.
Judge Robert Pitman, the judge in the Texas case, acknowledged Covid-19 risks by writing in his opinion that “absentee voters must choose between risking exposure to coronavirus to deliver their ballots in-person or disenfranchisement if the USPS is unable to deliver their ballots on time.”
But Republicans don’t care if you’re exposed to Covid-19 at the polls. They don’t want you to vote.
Photo: This is how many ballot drop boxes Gov. Abbott wants in a county of 4.7 million people.
The ultimate problem in most of these situations is the individual state legislatures have not passed any legislation in spite of a perceived emergency with the Corvid virus. Orders from Governors do not substitute for the role legislatures have, and it is possible for legislatures to put together a good plan because they are deliberative. As far as one drop in ballot box per county that is certainly a silly rule, but legislatures and governors may adopt dumb and stupid rules. Legislatures may still say it is all in person. Or as much as possible. Legislatures can also make it nearly all mail in as is here, no matter the parties motivations. We allow and expect there to be fights in our states legislatures on these matters, and that those fights do not really ever end.
Ultimately Federal Judges cannot substitute their opinions for the legislatures decisions. At least without some show of fraud or discrimination. The Supreme court is likely to eventually rule on these orders and state the power is at the state legislatures.
This has nothing to do with the legislature. The judge struck down an executive order that violated the voters’ constitutional rights.