Doubt is cast on Abbott’s dropoff decision

AUSTIN — A federal judge Thursday signaled he sympathizes with voting rights groups seeking to block Gov. Greg Abbott’s order limiting mail ballot dropoff sites to one per county.

The Oct. 1 proclamation forced several of the state’s largest counties, including Harris and Travis, to get rid of additional boxes they had added for voter convenience and safety during the pandemic.

Abbott said the purpose was to combat voter fraud, though he offered no evidence and election law experts have said it is highly unlikely.

During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman appeared unconvinced by the idea that eliminating the additional locations would have no impact on voting accessibility.

The suit before Pitman is one of several challenging Texas election laws and Abbott’s pandemic executive orders amending them that still are swirling, even as the start of early voting approaches.

On Wednesday, the Texas Supreme Court upheld a different Abbott order that extended the early voting period and allowed dropoff on the days prior to Election Day.

The high court also ruled Harris County can’t send mail ballot applications to all 2.4 million registered voters.

Plaintiffs in Thursday’s suit include individual voters, the Texas League of United Latin American Citizens, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, the Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches and Bigtent Creative, an advocacy organization that engages young voters.

They argue the elimination of the dropoff sites would disenfranchise minority voters and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by impeding those who happen to live in large Texas counties.

The urban cores of the largest Texas counties are overwhelmingly blue.

“This effort to restrict Texas voters’ access to voting during the pandemic imposes a significant, unjustifiable burden on vot

ing and must be immediately enjoined,” lawyers for the plaintiffs argued. “In the midst of an ongoing election, changing the status quo and forcing such new burdens on voters who relied on a different set of election rules to make their voting plan is unreasonable, unfair, and unconstitutional.”

The pool of voters using this method appears to be relatively small so far, though mail-in voting is up across Texas, so demand could rise.

In Harris County, for example, just 0.2 percent of 85,922 absentee voters hand-delivered their ballots during the low-turnout July primary runoff; 39 of the 404 ballots for the Nov. 3 election that have been returned through Thursday were dropped off by voters.

Those dropoffs ceased when Abbott's order went into effect with less than 24 hours notice.

Eric Hudson, who represented the state, told the court Abbott has expanded opportunities for voters to submit mail-in ballots, such as by allowing more days for dropoff than just Election Day and increasing the in-person early voting period. Pitman seemed skeptical of that argument.

“Is it the governor's position that we've given you so much that it's OK if we take back a little?" Pitman said.

“Well, I don't think we've taken anything back, Your Honor, respectfully. I think what we have here. …”

“If he didn't take anything back, then why did he have to do the proclamation?” Pitman replied.

Hudson argued voters have so many options, including the extra week of early voting, that limits on the dropoff sites is not a substantial burden.

He said the state has an interest in preventing both actual voter fraud and the “appearance of fraud” to ensure voter confidence.

It's also easier for poll watchers to cover one location than multiple locations, he said.

On why the state has not provided more evidence of voter fraud, Hudson said Supreme Court precedent shows the burden is not on the state to “demonstrate empirically the objective effects of their election laws.”

Attorneys for the plaintiff strongly objected. They argued the additional ballot dropoff sites, many of which were in county annex offices, were safe, requiring voters to sign a registration form when they check in and show photo ID, and noting that employees are trained to verify voters' identities.

“All the evidence shows that drop boxes are secure,” attorney John Devaney said. “We have counties that have been using them, including multiple drop boxes, and there's not a shred of evidence that there has been any problem with that.”