• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Politics
  • Health
  • Travel
  • Gay Pride
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Men
  • Space
  • Science
  • Gay Iconography
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Monkeypox
  • Film/TV

Texas rejects hundreds of mail ballot applications under new voting limits

Towleroad January 23, 2022 Leave a Comment

 
Published by
Reuters
 
482907 origin 1

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – Texas election officials have rejected hundreds of mail-in ballot applications, abiding by a new Republican-backed law just weeks before a March 1 primary kicks off this year’s U.S. election cycle.

“My friends, this is what voter suppression looks like,” Democrat Dana DeBeauvoir, the Travis County clerk, told reporters on Tuesday.

The county, home to the state capital Austin, invalidated approximately 300 applications because people failed to meet the law’s stricter identification requirements, said DeBeauvoir, who retires at month’s end.

Lawmakers in Texas approved a raft of voting restrictions last year, one of many efforts in Republican-controlled states to pass new limits after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed he lost the 2020 election because of widespread fraud.

Democrats in Congress this week renewed their push to pass sweeping voting rights legislation https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-democrats-start-voting-rights-showdown-with-no-clear-path-victory-2022-01-18 that would overturn limits such as the Texas law, but the effort appears doomed in the face of united Republican opposition.

The Texas bill prompted some Democratic legislators to flee the state for weeks to prevent the state House of Representatives from having the quorum necessary to pass it, though they eventually relented.

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who signed the bill in September and is seeking re-election this year, has said the law, known as Senate Bill 1, will increase public trust in elections.

The U.S. Justice Department has sued Texas over the legislation, saying it disenfranchises voters. Democrats say such restrictions discriminate against Black voters and other minorities who traditionally support Democratic candidates.

Among other provisions, the law requires voters applying for a mail ballot to provide either a driver’s license or Social Security number, which must match the number they gave when first registering to vote.

That leaves some voters playing a “guessing game,” DeBeauvoir said, because many people cannot recall which number they provided originally and there is no easy way for voters to check.

Harris County, which includes Houston, had rejected 409 out of 1,373 applications as of last Friday for ID problems, including 309 missing ID numbers and 173 with numbers that did not match those on file, according to Leah Shah, a spokesperson for the county elections office.

In Bexar County, home to San Antonio, officials had processed more than 300 rejections through last week out of some 1,200 applications, elections administrator Jacquelyn Callanen said in a phone interview. Around 80% of those were due to the new ID requirements.

Other provisions in the law are also creating obstacles, she said. The office previously added a sticker with voters’ addresses to applications that were mailed out to save them a step, but that is no longer permitted, Callanen said.

The law also prohibits residents from obtaining applications for other people, including relatives. Callanen said her office regularly receives messages from senior citizens asking for ballots for themselves and their spouses; under the law, spouses must make their own separate requests.

“It’s sort of thwarting us at every turn,” she said.

Mail ballots in Texas are already sharply limited to a handful of categories, including residents 65 years and older, disabled residents or voters who will be absent from their county during early voting and Election Day.

DeBeauvoir said Secretary of State John Scott’s office had failed to give local officials enough guidance on how to help voters cure any defects.

In response, Sam Taylor, a spokesperson for Scott’s office, said state officials reached out to Travis County last week to advise staff on the proper process and noted that the county’s own estimated rejection rate went down from 50% to 27% following that guidance.

He said clerks have been instructed to accept applications in which voters have included both their license and Social Security number, as long as one of them matches what is on file.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Howard Goller)

482907 482907 origin 1 1

 

482907 482907 origin 1 2

 

482907 482907 origin 1 3

 

482907 482907 origin 1 4

 

482907 482907 origin 1 5

 

Topics: Aaon, towleroad

  • Activists Rally, Make Case For Thailand Marriage Equality; Present Rewritten Version of  Constitutional Court’s Ruling On Marriage Law

    Activists Rally, Make Case For Thailand Marriage Equality; Present Rewritten Version of Constitutional Court’s Ruling On Marriage Law

    On May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia(IDAHOT), activists held a rally for LGBTQ+ rights and called for marriage equality by rewriting the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the Thai marriage law. On November 17, …Read More »
  • New House map sets stage for Brooklyn slugfest headlined by Bill de Blasio, Mondaire Jones

    New House map sets stage for Brooklyn slugfest headlined by Bill de Blasio, Mondaire Jones

    Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — The ink has barely dried on New York’s much-revised House map, but a radically transformed 10th Congressional District has set the stage for an unruly political scramble …Read More »
  • Kate McKinnon Leaving SNL; What? Also Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson  and Kyle Mooney Set to Depart After This Season.  Season Finale TONIGHT

    Kate McKinnon Leaving SNL; What? Also Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney Set to Depart After This Season. Season Finale TONIGHT

      Published by InsideHook   By Tobias Carroll The current season of Saturday Night Live featured the show’s largest cast ever, with 21 different comedians appearing on screen at various points during the year. Based on …Read More »
  • Explicit Photos To Blame? ‘Speechless’ Madonna Is Outraged After Being BLOCKED From Instagram Live

    Explicit Photos To Blame? ‘Speechless’ Madonna Is Outraged After Being BLOCKED From Instagram Live

    Published by Radar Online KCS Presse / MEGA Madonna was in utter shock to discover that Instagram had blocked her from going live, sharing a video of the awkward moment she found out on Friday. “What …Read More »
Previous Post: « Election fraud belief undimmed for Trump fans, despite party hopes
Next Post: Bill, Hillary Clinton Allegedly Tried To Erase Jeffrey Epstein Ties Ahead Of 2016 Presidential Election »

Primary Sidebar

News

  • Harris, White House Spox Rip Oklahoma For Passing Near-Total Abortion Ban Weeks After Leaked Supreme Court Opinion

    Harris, White House Spox Rip Oklahoma For Passing Near-Total Abortion Ban Weeks After Leaked Supreme Court Opinion

  • Trump pays $110,000 fine for blocking New York state tax probe

    Trump pays $110,000 fine for blocking New York state tax probe

  • Erdogan demands concessions to back Swedish, Finnish NATO membership

    Erdogan demands concessions to back Swedish, Finnish NATO membership

  • Zelensky says Ukraine has ‘broken the backbone’ of the Russian army

    Zelensky says Ukraine has ‘broken the backbone’ of the Russian army

Break

  • Evan Spiegel & Miranda Kerr Pay Off $10 Million In Loans Of Otis College’s Graduating Class

    Evan Spiegel & Miranda Kerr Pay Off $10 Million In Loans Of Otis College’s Graduating Class

  • Vladimir Putin’s Daughter SECRETLY Living In Germany With Man Named Igor Zelensky

    Vladimir Putin’s Daughter SECRETLY Living In Germany With Man Named Igor Zelensky

  • Tucker Carlson: Voice of white America’s outrage and fears

    Tucker Carlson: Voice of white America’s outrage and fears

  • Viola Davis was called by director’s maid’s name

    Viola Davis was called by director’s maid’s name

RSS Partner Links

  • Birthday Sluts
  • Sunday Comics
  • Speedo Sunday
  • Trainer Day + Sniffing Out The Scoop On Poppers + NJ Trucker-Congressman Proposes STRICTER Don't Say Gay Bill + MORE! — 6-PACK
  • 'Barry' Actor Anthony Carrigan Says He Was Told to Quit Acting Over Alopecia
  • Adele Sits Courtside with Boyfriend Rich Paul at NBA Palyoffs Game
  • 'Sex & the City' Author Candace Bushnell, 63, Dating 21-Year-Old Model
  • Ashley Graham Reveals She Nearly Died Giving Birth to Twins at Home
  • Hot Slut Of The Day!

Most Recent

  • Hayley Kiyoko Comes Out About Dating ‘Bachelor’ Star Becca Tilley In Video For Her Catchy New “For the Girls” A Parody of Lesbian Dates, Reality Tropes: WATCH

    Hayley Kiyoko Comes Out About Dating ‘Bachelor’ Star Becca Tilley In Video For Her Catchy New “For the Girls” A Parody of Lesbian Dates, Reality Tropes: WATCH

  • Activists Rally, Make Case For Thailand Marriage Equality; Present Rewritten Version of  Constitutional Court’s Ruling On Marriage Law

    Activists Rally, Make Case For Thailand Marriage Equality; Present Rewritten Version of Constitutional Court’s Ruling On Marriage Law

  • New House map sets stage for Brooklyn slugfest headlined by Bill de Blasio, Mondaire Jones

    New House map sets stage for Brooklyn slugfest headlined by Bill de Blasio, Mondaire Jones

  • Kate McKinnon Leaving SNL; What? Also Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson  and Kyle Mooney Set to Depart After This Season.  Season Finale TONIGHT

    Kate McKinnon Leaving SNL; What? Also Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney Set to Depart After This Season. Season Finale TONIGHT

  • Explicit Photos To Blame? ‘Speechless’ Madonna Is Outraged After Being BLOCKED From Instagram Live

    Explicit Photos To Blame? ‘Speechless’ Madonna Is Outraged After Being BLOCKED From Instagram Live

  • US archbishop bans Pelosi from communion over abortion rights support

    US archbishop bans Pelosi from communion over abortion rights support

  • Giuliani meets with U.S. House Jan. 6 panel, CNN reports

    Giuliani meets with U.S. House Jan. 6 panel, CNN reports

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Log in