Texas Sued Over Plan to Limit Ballot Drop Boxes for Election

(Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott was sued by voting rights groups who say his plan to limit each county to a single ballot drop box for the Nov. 3 election, regardless of size or population, will have the effect of suppressing the vote in urban areas.

The suit, filed late Thursday in federal court in Austin, alleges Abbott, a Republican and outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, is violating the rights of voters who wish to drop off their mail-in ballots amid a pandemic and delays in the Postal Service.

“They will have to travel further distances, face longer waits, and risk exposure to Covid-19, in order to use the single ballot return location in their county,” the complaint says. “And, if they are unwilling or unable to face these new burdens, they will have to rely on a hobbled postal mail system -- that has expressed a lack of confidence in its own ability to timely deliver the mail -- and hope that their ballot will be delivered in time to be counted.”

The suit was filed by groups including the League of Women Voters of Texas and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Abbott's office didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Read More: Texas Governor Curbs Mail-Vote Drop Sites, Amping Up Ballot Feud

Though a Republican bulwark in recent decades, Texas is a toss-up this year, and its populous urban areas lean Democratic. Harris County, which includes Houston, is the third-largest county in the nation by population.

“Republicans are on the verge of losing, so Governor Abbott is trying to adjust the rules last minute,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement after Abbott announced his plan Wednesday.

The governor cited election security for the change, which upended plans by sprawling metropolitan areas such as Austin and Houston to have several satellite sites to make it easier for eligible voters using mail-in ballots to deliver their votes in person. The new rule means Houston will have to close nearly a dozen drop-off locations, while Austin will close three. That could mean long commutes in heavy traffic to drop off a ballot.

The complaint accused Abbott of hypocrisy for making such a significant change to election plans less than five weeks before the election. The governor in June had challenged various pandemic-related voting changes sought by Democrats on grounds that June was too close to Nov. 3.

‘Preciptious Change'

“Three months later, with voting underway in Texas, Governor Abbott made exactly the type of ‘precipitous change' that he had cautioned against,” the complaint says.

Luis Roberto Vera, general counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a statement that the governor's move “reeks of the continued voter suppression and rigging of voter turnout by Republicans against all Texans in a pandemic.”

The proclamation came as a revision to Abbott's July 27 decision to extend the state's early voting period by nine days because of the coronavirus epidemic. Texas early voting begins Oct. 13.

Republicans in Ohio are fighting to limit each county to a single drop box in that state as well.

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