Texas explores voting by mail

Texas is not making any moves to delay the May 26 primary runoff as of now, even as other states have opted to postpone elections.

But election officials have had preliminary conversations about the potential of doing vote-by-mail ballots only for the runoffs, which would be a first in Texas history.

“It’s a possible solution,” state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said Monday.

He said the idea has been kicked around and could work because of how low the turnout typically is for runoffs in Texas. As a former elections official, he said he has no doubt Texas counties could get ballots to voters who wanted to vote by mail rather than risk going to large polling sites.

The Texas Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections, would not confirm that it is exploring that possibility, only saying a lot of options are on the table.

The virus has already pushed other states to do all mail ballots. In Wyoming, which was scheduled to vote in the presidential primary on April 4, in-person voting has been canceled in favor of a system of picking up and sending in ballots. In Wisconsin, the state elections commission is halting inperson voting assistance at nursing homes and instead is sending mail-in ballots to those facilities for their April 7 primary.

In Illinois, which votes in the presidential primaries Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is urging voters to cast ballots by mail rather than show up at the polls.

Other states have postponed

primaries entirely. In Louisiana, election day has been moved from April 4 to June 20. In Georgia, the March 24 primary is now on May 19.

Absentee voting by mail is allowed in Texas for some people but isn’t very popular. In the March 4 primary, just 52,000 of 516,000 voters in Harris County cast ballots by mail.

In order to vote by mail in the May 26 runoff, voters must submit an application by May 15 to their county elections office.

Runoffs in Texas require that people who voted in one party’s

primary also vote in that party’s runoff. So if someone voted in the Democratic Primary on March 3, they can only vote in the Democratic runoff May 26

The big runoffs include the Texas Senate race in which Democrats MJ Hegar and Royce West finished first and second on March 3, but neither won 50 percent of the vote. In the 22nd Congressional District in Fort Bend and Harris counties, Sheriff Troy Nehls and GOP fundraiser Kathaleen Wall are battling in a Republican primary runoff.

Texas is one of the few states that still requires an excuse to submit an absentee ballot, at least for voters younger than 65. At least 34 states already allow voters

to cast ballots by mail. Four states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — conduct elections completely by mail.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has introduced legislation that would require every state to conduct November’s election entirely by mail if a quarter of states declare a state of emergency from an infectious disease or natural disaster.

The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute based in New York City, has recommended all states expand vote-by-mail. In a memo released Monday, the organization said all voters should be offered the option to cast ballots by mail to assure voters can avoid lines at the polls and exposure to COVID-19.

Voting rights advocacy groups have been leery of Texas pushing vote-by-mail too far because its system makes it too easy for voters’ ballots to be thrown out if elections officials decide a signature on a returned ballot doesn’t look right.

The Texas Civil Rights Project has warned that the ballots are not reviewed by experts but instead by everyday eligible voters who just eyeball signatures for irregularities. Those decisions are final and give voters no chance to prove a ballot was properly signed. The group has pushed for Texas to allow voters a chance to contest ballots rejected for a signature match issue.