Third-Biggest U.S. County Argues for Mass Mailing in Vote Fight

(Bloomberg) -- Texas can't stop a clerk from sending unsolicited vote-by-mail applications to all registered voters in its largest county, lawyers for Harris County argued in a court case that could affect Democrats' effort to clinch the crucial state in November.

The state's Republican leadership can't object to the mass mailing because it doesn't complain when political parties do the same or when senior citizens get mail-in-ballot applications en masse that they didn't request, the lawyers told the Texas Supreme Court in oral arguments on Wednesday.

The elections clerk of the nation's third-biggest county wants to send the applications for the Nov. 3 election to all 2.4 million registered voters in the county that makes up the heart of Houston, the state's largest city. Texas claims the mailers that Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins is poised to send would encourage young, able-bodied voters to use ballots the state says are restricted to senior citizens, absentee and disabled voters.

State lawyers argue Hollins can't do anything to “manage” local elections that state lawmakers didn't specifically give him the power to do. They assert, without evidence, that broadly distributed mail-in-ballot applications would lead to widespread voter fraud and “undermine confidence and the integrity of a national election.” President Donald Trump, who has made similar claims, repeated them Tuesday night in his first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Read More: Harris County wins at state appeals court

“Is even one fraudulent vote unacceptable?” Justice Eva Guzman asked Harris County's lawyer during Wednesday's video-conferenced arguments. If the broad distribution of vote-by-mail applications creates an environment ripe for voter fraud, she asked, “should courts just let it happen?”

The mailers are no more likely to lead to election fraud than the “ubiquitous” mail-in-ballot applications with which political campaigns already blanket Texas voters, without drawing any complaint from the state's elected leadership, attorney Susan Hays replied. “The question we should be asking is why Texas's other 253 counties are not doing this.”

Houston, the country's fourth-largest city and one of its most diverse, is a launchpad for Democrats' campaign to tip traditionally red Texas blue and cost Trump the state's 38 electoral votes. Republicans could also lose control of the state legislature and the coming redistricting cycle for representation in the U.S. House and the statehouse. Harris County is more populous than 26 states, Houston said in a filing in the case.

Harris County's mailers, emblazoned with red-siren warning graphics, clearly spell out who qualifies to use mailed ballots and explain the Texas Supreme Court's recent ruling that voters themselves can decide if their health makes it too dangerous for them to vote in person during the coronavirus pandemic.

The trial judge and lower state appellate judges unanimously sided with Harris County in earlier rounds in the case, finding that Texas had presented no evidence that mail-in ballots lead to widespread fraud.

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