(Bloomberg) -- A major effort by national Democratic groups to register more voters in Texas got a boost on Wednesday when a federal judge allowed their lawsuit challenging a ban on electronic-signatures to proceed.
U.S. Chief District Judge Orlando L. Garcia in San Antonio denied Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs's request to dismiss the case, ruling that the state and national Democratic Party organizations that filed the lawsuit in January had properly alleged the ban on e-signatures illegally hinders their voter registration efforts and isn't backed by any state law.
“Texas Republicans have fought hard to make voting as difficult as possible because they know that if everyone can vote, they will lose,” Marc Elias, a lawyer who has filed dozens of voting rights cases on behalf of Democratic groups across the U.S., said in an email. “The court's ruling is the first, important, crack in their wall of voter suppression.”
The Democratic groups claim that five days before the voter registration deadline for the 2018 midterm election, Hughs instructed county registrars to throw out more than 2,400 voter registration applications that were collected and submitted by a third-party organization seeking to increase voter turnout. They now fear a similar purge will occur in November.
Hughs argued the suit was flawed because she didn't personally reject the applications, and that requiring “wet signatures” -- or physical signatures -- is a valid interpretation of state law. Republicans have said that such restrictions on registering to vote and casting ballots are necessary to prevent fraud.
Hughs's office didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.
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