World News – US – Court authorizes Texas governor to limit absentee ballot boxes

A US Federal Court of Appeals Committee on Monday upheld the Texas government order from Greg Abbott to shut down dozens of mail order filing sites weeks before the November election

The move comes after a federal judge on Friday ruled out the order, which allowed only one postal ballot drop-off location for each county, regardless of size

The Texas Secretary of State had argued that Abbott’s order was part of a 40-day extension of absentee voting opportunities for Texans put in place due to Covid-19 going on – beyond what the state electoral rules normally allow

« Leaving the October 1 governor’s proclamation in effect still gives absentee voters in Texas many ways to vote in the November 3 election, » the court wrote in its ruling « These remote voting methods go beyond what Texas law previously allowed in a pre-Covid world. The October 1 proclamation abolishes the right to vote for nobody »

Democrats and voting rights groups said the Oct 1 order was tantamount to removing voters Abbott said he released it to keep ballots safe

The lawsuit was first filed in early October and the plaintiffs listed in the appeal include the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters of Texas and the Mexican American Legislative House Caucus representatives from Texas Organizations were not immediately available for comment

The federal judge ruled on Friday in favor of a preliminary injunction on the order, saying « the public interest is not served by Texas’ continued enforcement of a proclamation whose plaintiffs showed that it was probably violating their fundamental right to vote »

However, the Fifth Circuit said in its ruling that in stopping Abbott’s order, « the district court erred » in its analysis of the plaintiffs’ voting rights and equality claims. protection

Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughes immediately appealed the decision on Friday, and the Fifth Circuit granted a temporary stay the next day

In Texas, if a voter is 65 or older on polling day, has a disability, or is out of the county, they can apply to vote by mail

Harris County, which includes much of the sprawling city of Houston and is home to more than 4 million people has created 11 ballot drop locations Dallas County, the second largest county in the ‘State in terms of population, initially opened five drop-off points

The president has repeatedly questioned postal voting at a time when Americans adopted it in response to the pandemic Trump also said he wanted to use law enforcement as poll observers on polling day

There is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud in the United States, according to numerous surveys and studies

Ballot, Greg Abbott, Texas, United States Appeals Courts