Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Bad handwriting can't stop you from voting in Texas, federal judge says

signature, Texas voting
rolfo eclaire/Getty Images

Texans must be given a chance to prove they really did sign their own absentee ballots if the handwriting on the envelopes looks fishy to election officials, a federal judge has ruled.

If not quickly and successfully appealed by the Texas government, the ruling will guarantee the franchise to a relatively small but potentially pivotal group of voters in the nation's second biggest state, where the presidential race has become genuinely competitive for the first time in almost four decades.

Officials are expecting a record deluge of mailed ballots — especially from people older than 65, who have long been automatically exempt from the state's strict excuse requirements for voting remotely. They are also among the people likeliest to have signatures that have varied over time.


Local officials have been allowed to simply toss ballots after making subjective judgements about mismatched handwriting — at least 1,900 of them two years ago and 1,600 in the last presidential election, although in those elections mailed ballots accounted for just 7 percent of the total vote.

If the share of absentee voting soars as expected, so too will the number of potentially rejected ballots, in some cases to a number big enough to affect the outcome of close contests.

On Tuesday, Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio said that arbitrariness "plainly violates certain voters' constitutional rights." He told the state to inform local election officials within 10 days it is unconstitutional to reject ballots based on a "perceived signature mismatch" without notifying voters and giving them a "meaningful opportunity" to sign again. The choices for the state's 254 counties, Garcia said, are to either to accept every signature or come up with a do-over procedure in the next eight weeks — one that starts with a phone call to the voters whose signatures don't look right.

The case began more than a year ago, long before the coronavirus pandemic turned once arcane procedures governing vote-by-mail into a top cause of civil rights groups. The suit was filed by two voters who were told, 10 days after Election Day as state law dictates, that their ballots had been rejected because the endorsement on the flap of a ballot envelope didn't look enough like other signatures on file. They were joined by groups that represent Texans with disabilities, veterans and young voters in arguing the state law violates the 14th Amendment.

Texas offers mail-in ballots to voters who are elderly, will be traveling during an election or who claim a disability or illness. It is one of six states, and the only potential presidential battleground, that has not relaxed those rules because of the public health crisis.

The ruling comes as mail-in ballots for the general election are almost set to go out to voters.

Joe Biden is actively campaigning to become the first nominee of his party since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to carry the state, which now has 38 electoral votes, and polling shows him with a realistic shot. Democrats are also in striking distance of picking up a Senate seat, as many as five House seats and control of half the state Legislature — all mainly because of the growth of the Latino and college-educated suburban populations.

Read More

Is the Ban on Abortion More Important Than Democracy?
Abortion at the Dinner Table
Getty Images

Is the Ban on Abortion More Important Than Democracy?

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 93 prosecutors from 29 states vowed in a statement that they would not pursue abortion cases. In return, 17 states have attempted to pass laws curbing prosecutorial discretion, a legal principle that has existed since the United States’s founding.

On average, more than a quarter (28%) of cases are dismissed by prosecutors for various reasons, including insufficient evidence, constitutional violations, procedural errors, lack of resources, more pressing priorities, or negative public opinion. Prosecutors are public servants, propelled to power by the people, committed to justice. They make decisions based on the tenets of their position.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Expand Democracy 5

The Expand Democracy 5

RCV Critics, the “Re-Gerrymander”, Citizen Initiatives, Deliberative Democracy

Welcome to the latest edition of The Expand Democracy 5. In August, the Expand Democracy team will be taking a break from creating new content, but we look forward to sharing grouped content from this year’s editions that they believe still remains relevant. Today's stories include:

🗳️ Deep dive: Ranked choice voting and its critics

Keep ReadingShow less
Girls drawing an American flag with chalk
United States continues to be a ‘flawed democracy’ in annual study
LWA/Dann Tardif/Getty Images

Innovating America’s Democracy Is Our Tradition and Our Responsibility

The American story is one of constant innovation and renewal, where democracy rises to meet the challenges of each new age. Our history documents a journey of transformation, inviting us to reflect on centuries of innovation in American democracy. Citizens have routinely amended outdated practices, reinforced core tenets, and forged new institutions. Our story highlights that reform is not only possible—it is tradition.

As we celebrate America’s 250th year, which began on July 4, 2025, we must also reflect on the nature of innovations in our democracy as a platform for encouraging Americans to embrace the next phase of reform. If we are successful in adding a new set of reforms to the historical arc, ones that remove the overly partisan influences on our electoral system, we might be able to reverse the hyperpartisan spiral George Washington warned us about; and we may re-align our electoral incentives to promote the kind of cooperation among elected leaders that might allow us to have on-time responsible budgets and the kinds of practical policies the country needs. It feels like a daunting task, but our forebears often tackled what were monumental revisions to our democracy in their times. And it would be a shame to let the 250th anniversary of our country come and go without taking up the charge given to us by those who came before us, the responsibility to leave our generation’s mark on our improving democracy. We have all the tools and ideas we need. We must decide if we have the will.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hands raised in a classroom.​
In the summer of 2025, the Trump administration’s education agenda is beginning to mirror the blueprint laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
Getty Images, FreshSplash

Ukrainian Teen, U.S. Student: A Shared Fight for Stability

Heart-stopping: not the description that comes to mind for most high school volunteer projects. But on a Friday afternoon late last March, my role as a virtual English tutor with ENGin was exactly that.

For nearly a year, I’ve been meeting weekly over Zoom with a 14-year-old Ukrainian teenager named Max. During our sessions, we’ll chat about everything from Marvel movies to the latest football scores—he’s a die-hard Real Madrid fan—and play games like charades or "Would You Rather." But on that particular Friday, Max wasn’t online.

Keep ReadingShow less