Texas Governor Cuts Polling Places Weeks Before Elections

The governor of Texas has mandated that voters be able to deliver their ballots by mail to only one location per county in the run-up to the presidential election.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said the measure would stop illegal voting.

Critics have accused Abbott of voter suppression, noting that in some cases this means thousands of voters must go to an administrative office.

Weeks before the election, the order requires counties to close any satellite ballot drop-off locations.

Texas is the second most populous state in the United States and it would be a huge victory for the candidates during the November 3 election. The state has been reliably Republican in modern presidential races.

This time many more voters are expected to vote by mail or turn in their ballots due to the pandemic.

Voting by mail protocols differ slightly from state to state, but in Texas, eligible early voters can begin turning in their ballots this month.

Some of the largest counties in the state had already established multiple delivery sites. Harris County, home to the city of Houston and some four million residents, must now close 11 drop off locations, the Houston Chronicle reported.

In addition to raising questions about how potentially millions of urban Texans will need to visit a single delivery site, the move can also be problematic for rural residents, who are scattered throughout the state, which is also the second-largest in the United States by area.

The order goes into effect on Friday.

In a statement following Thursday’s order, Abbott cited Covid-19 in calling for the strengthening of ballot security protocols.

“These enhanced security protocols will ensure greater transparency and help stop illegal voting attempts.”

Numerous studies at the national and state levels over the years have revealed no evidence of widespread and significant fraud in vote-by-mail.

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Texas Democratic President Gilberto Hinojosa responded to the ad by accusing “scared” Republicans of trying to change the rules while “they were about to lose.”

Hinojosa added that the US courts have said it is too late to make changes to the electoral rules, “but our failed Republican leadership will try anyway.”

Abbott’s proclamation will cause “widespread confusion and voter suppression,” Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins said in a statement. Harris County, which encompasses Houston, is the most populous county in the state.

“Several drop-off locations have been announced for weeks,” he said. “Forcing hundreds of thousands of seniors and voters with disabilities to use a single drop-off location … is disruptive and dangerous.”

Abbott’s order also says that voting officials must allow election observers to be present at the drop-off location.

Election observers are individuals who can be on the lookout for any violations of electoral law at the polling place and during the counting process. They cannot intimidate or speak to voters.

President Donald Trump has urged his supporters to become election observers and suggested that the election could be rigged.

It is difficult to understand exactly how big the state of Texas is. There are counties in the west as large as small states in the US The Dallas-Fort Worth area has a population greater than a dozen European nations. It has an economy roughly the size of Russia.

Texas also has one of the lowest turnout in the nation’s elections, with only 46.5% of the voting-age population casting their votes in 2016.

Those numbers will not improve with Governor Abbott’s decision to require only one place to drop ballots per county statewide. It will be a burden in populated areas like Houston, where traffic and density make travel slow, and in the West, where vast open spaces make it arduous.

The state has a strong early voting system, but with concerns about voting in person during the Covid-19 pandemic, Texas at risk might prefer to limit exposure.

Those on the left will view Abbott’s decision, combined with other Republican efforts to limit absentee voting, particularly in urban areas that have a Democratic lean, as an attempt to prevent their party from winning key elections at the state level or, perhaps, even vote for the Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1976.

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