Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Slammed Over New Rule Limiting Counties to One Mail Ballot Drop-Off Location: ‘It’s Voter Suppression, Y’all!’

Reed RichardsonOct 1st, 2020, 5:34 pm
 
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Photo credit: Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool, Getty Images.

Governor Greg Abbott (R – TX) became the target of a fierce online backlash on Thursday after he abruptly announced the state would no longer be allowing more than one mail ballot drop-off site per county. Several of the most populous counties in the state had just opened multiple satellite locations to handle the expected surge in mail-in ballots amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Chuck Lindell, in an Austin American-Statesman report, explained that Texas would now be closing all additional ballot drop-off sites as of Friday. And he noted the impact of the order on Austin’s home county, Travis, as well as Harris County, which encompasses Houston. Those two counties had just opened additional ballot turn-in sites within the past few day to accommodate potentially hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots.

Abbott, citing “election security,” had issued a proclamation on Thursday effectively rolling back an earlier rule issued over the summer that had broadened voting provisions due the public health risk from coronavirus.

Beginning on October 2, 2020, this suspension applies only when: the voter delivers the marked mail ballot at a single early voting clerk’s office location that is publicly designated by the early voting clerk for the return of marked mail ballots.

But Abbott’s claim — and the last-minute timing — fell on deaf ears, especially since the current RealClearPolitics polling average of Texas shows Democratic challenger Joe Biden within a couple of percentage points of President Donald Trump. And the impact on Harris County, the state’s most populous county, drew particular, heated outrage.

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