• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. vote by mail>

Covid-19 worry a worthy excuse to vote absentee in Texas, judge rules

Bill Theobald
April 16, 2020
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (above at the 2016 GOP convention) said Wednesday the virus is not a valid reason for voting absentee -- on the same day a judge ruled the opposite.

Kirk Irwin/Getty Imagines

Fear of contracting coronavirus is a valid reason for Texans to vote by mail, a state judge has ruled.

The decision Wednesday by District Judge Tim Sulak, an Austin Democrat, came within hours of the opposite pronouncement from the office of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, which said the pandemic does not qualify as a legitimate excuse for voters to request an absentee ballot.

The contrasting rulings, in the state with the second most electoral votes, form the latest important example of how partisan the issue of mail-in voting has become across the country.


Democrats and good governance groups are pushing hard to expand voting by mail and otherwise ease access to the polls during the Covid-19 outbreak, in part by asking states that require a reason from citizens who want to vote absentee to waive those rules — or at least say coronavirus is covered by one of the permissible excuses.

Many Republicans, led by President Trump, oppose expanding mail-in voting, arguing it increases the chances of voter fraud. New studies out this week dispel such claims.

Sulak cited the pandemic in issuing a temporary injunction in a lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party and voting rights groups, who want to broaden use of vote-by-mail in the primary runoffs in July and the November general election. The judge said it fit under a provision in state law allowing people with disabilities to request absentee ballots. Texas is one of 17 states that require a specific excuse to obtain an absentee ballot.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Paxton, who is expected to appeal, offered a withering critique of the decision. "This unlawful expansion of mail-in voting will only serve to undermine the security and integrity of our elections and to facilitate fraud," he said.

In addition to disability, Texas law also allows absentee ballots for people over 65, those in the military and people who will be away from home during voting.

The attorney general's opinion, written by a Paxton assistant, argues that fear of contracting coronavirus is not a sickness or a physical condition, but rather an emotional reaction to the pandemic that is not "sufficient to meet the definition of disability."

A week ago the state Democratic Party filed a second suit in federal court arguing that conducting the July 14 runoffs and the November election under current rules, at a time when stay-at-home orders or similar restrictions may be in place, would be unconstitutional and violate the Voting Rights Act.

Trump is confident of the state's 38 electoral votes, and the state has been carried by the GOP nominee without fail since 1976. But Democrats believe changing demographics give them a chance in a high-turnout election. Huge numbers would also give them a shot at a Senate upset and picking up as many as a half-dozen House seats across the state.

From Your Site Articles
  • Democrats to spend more than $10M suing for voting rights - The ... ›
  • Suit challenges subjective system for rejecting Texas mail-in ballots ... ›
  • Moves in three states to avoid another Wisconsin, even as Sanders ... ›
  • Democrats challenge early voting limits in two '20 battlegrounds ›
  • Lawsuits challenge vote-by-mail rules in Texas, Tenn. - The Fulcrum ›
  • N.Y. absentee rules are unfair to the blind, complaint says - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Voting: An Information Guide: When ›
  • So You Want An Absentee Ballot In Texas? Here's How To Get One ... ›
  • Coronavirus and a Texas election law could keep millions from voting ›
vote by mail

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Steve Corbin

A dangerous loss of trust

William Natbony

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber
latest News

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
10h

Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

David Butler
11h

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

James-Christian B. Blockwood
31 May

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Mia Minkin
31 May

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
30 May

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

David J. Toscano
30 May
Videos

Video: Why music? Why now?

David L. Nevins

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff

Video: What's next for migrants seeking asylum after Title 42

Our Staff

Video: An inside look at the campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primaries

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Our Staff
10h

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May

Podcast: Gen Z's fight for democracy

Our Staff
22 May
Recommended
Video: Why music? Why now?

Video: Why music? Why now?

Big Picture
Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Podcast: Saving democracy from & with AI

Technology
Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

Default? Financial crisis? Political theater?

Budgeting
Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

State
Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Test Unlisted