Protesters at Texas Capitol call for lifting of restrictions.
Attorney General Ken Paxton has forgotten who he works for.
During the pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Americans and more than 400 Texans, the Republican has devoted himself to pursuing his pet political causes — restricting abortion access and shrugging at voting rights.
On Wednesday, Paxton scoffed at Texans who are actually taking this crisis seriously and working to ensure that the state’s coming elections are conducted safely and securely by expanding voting-by-mail procedures.
Under state law, voters over age 65 are eligible to request a
mail-in ballot. Those under that age need a reason, such as being out of the country when the election is held or having an illness or disability.
Democrats and civil rights groups have argued that the novel coronavirus qualifies, because it’s difficult to maintain social distancing at a polling location. On Wednesday, state Judge Tim Sulak in Travis County agreed.
The judge announced that he will issue a temporary injunction allowing voters who would risk exposure to the virus by voting in person — in other words, all voters — to request a mail-in ballot for elections scheduled for 2020. He officially issued the injunction Friday.
The state is expected to appeal. Republicans, in general, are skeptical of mail-in voting, which they maintain is vulnerable to fraud even though such cases are rare and President Donald Trump himself has voted absentee by mail. In the meantime, Paxton suggested that voters’ concerns about their health or public health are silly.
“Mail ballots based on disability are specifically reserved for those who are physically ill and cannot vote in-person as a result,” Paxton said in an advisory issued by his office Wednesday. “Fear of contracting COVID-19 does not amount to a sickness or physical condition as required by the Legislature.”
The advisory isn’t legally binding. But the attorney general’s office suggested, menacingly, that Texans should take it seriously.
“To the extent third parties advise voters to apply for a mail-in ballot based solely on fear of contracting COVID-19, such activity could subject those third parties to criminal sanctions imposed by Election Code section 84.0041,” said Ryan M. Vassar, the deputy attorney general for legal counsel, in his letter accompanying the advisory.
This appetite for overzealous law enforcement is hard to stomach, especially given that Paxton himself has been under indictment for most of his time in statewide office, charged with several violations of state securities law. He maintains his innocence.
Setting that aside, there are several problems with the attorney general’s reasoning. The first is that, as it stands, there’s no assurance that Texas voters who are ill with COVID-19 will know their status, given that the state continues to severely lag others in terms of testing rates per capita.
Leaders on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged this issue, which Paxton is simply ignoring.
“The States have to step up their TESTING!” President Donald Trump tweeted Friday.
Indeed, a Texas voter who has COVID-19 may not seem “ill.” Many carriers are asymptomatic. A new study published in Nature Medicine suggests that carriers are more infectious before the onset of symptoms.
Perhaps most importantly, Paxton is ignoring the fact that Texans are embracing unusual precautions to protect our loved ones and neighbors, as well as ourselves. That’s one of the reasons Democrats are pushing to expand voting by mail in 2020. Those of us who aren’t personally at elevated risk of contracting the coronavirus are rightly reluctant to go glibly about our business without regard for the more vulnerable members of our families and communities.
The courts may eventually conclude that this pandemic isn’t sufficient reason to expand voting by mail for the duration of the crisis, as several other states have done in recent weeks. But the attorney general is wrong to suggest that Texans who are calling for this change are simply being nervous Nellies.
It’s true that an expansion of voting by mail could lead to an increase in the statewide turnout rate this year, which might not bode well for our Republican leaders. Paxton himself narrowly avoided being unseated in the 2018 midterm elections, edging Democrat Justin Nelson by less than 4 points.
But the voters who have concerns about voting in person in 2020 are Paxton’s constituents too, and the attorney general should endeavor to treat them more respectfully and put public health before politics.