Stay filed on ruling on ballot drop-offs

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an emergency stay Saturday, seeking to halt a federal judge's ruling from Friday night that said Texas counties can have multiple absentee ballot drop-off locations. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman's ruling blocked Gov. Greg Abbott's recent order that sought to limit counties to just one such location.

Saying the district court's injunction “usurp(s) the power of the governing state authority,” Paxton requested that the 5thU.S. Circuit of Appeals stay the lower court's ruling no later than 9 a.m. Tuesday, pending an appeal.

Texas voters must present an approved form of identification to deliver their mail-in ballots, and they may not turn in any one else's ballot. But Abbott claimed the limits on dropoff locationswere necessary to ensure election integrity, even though he provided no evidence that the drop-off sites enable voter fraud, which experts say is rare.

The governor's claims echoed ongoing attempts by Donald Trump and other GOP leaders this year to sow doubt over the reliability of voting by mail. But even as Texas Republicans have resisted the expansion of voters usingmail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic, they've also urged their own voters to fill out applications for such ballots.

Democrats labeled Abbott's order voter suppression in a state that has repeatedly been knocked in federal court for intentionally discriminating against voters of color.

“Cutting these mail-in voting locations was wrong and done solely to attempt to steal the election fromthe risingTexas electorate,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. “A county, like Harris County, with more than 4.7 million Texans should have more than one hand delivery location. Limiting counties like Harris is a desperate Republican attempt to hold onto power.”

The legal battle has no effect on Bexar County, whose elections department has planned all along to have just one drop-off site formail ballots — the central elections office at1103 S. Frio St. in downtown San Antonio.