Election Protection

"This isn’t security, it’s suppression,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo tweeted of the move, which prompted a lawsuit by the League of United Latin American Citizens. The Texas branch of the nonpartisan grassroots organization Common Cause is suing to challenge the limit. Its attorney Anthony Gutierrez said the governor lacks authority to restrict drop boxes; that's for local election officials.

The ADL’s Austin, Southwest and Texoma Regions, Common Cause Texas and an individual Texas voter filed suit to block the governor of Texas from limiting drop-off sites for absentee ballots to a maximum of one per county during the state’s early voting period, regardless of the size of a county’s population or the distribution of that population.

“Just blatant voter suppression. There is really no reason in the world why counties should be limited to one drop off site for mail ballots. All around the country we are seeing vote by mail access expanded, to where they are letting basically anybody vote by mail if they are afraid for their health,” said Anthony Gutierrez with Common Cause Texas.

Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, said in a statement that in Harris County, “reducing 11 drop off locations to only 1 severely limits voting access and forces people to choose between voting and their health.” The county, which includes Houston, comprises 1,777 square miles. He called Abbott’s order “blatant voter suppression and yet another way the politicians in charge are putting barriers between Texans and the ballot box.” “With last-minute changes and pending litigation, it is increasingly clear that confusion in Texas elections is part of a pattern of voter suppression,” he said.

Nonpartisan Common Cause Texas cites things like polling place closures, voter role purges, ID requirements and antiquated machinery. There's also the more timely topic of vote-by-mail which Texas has yet to significantly expand. "It really doesn’t make any sense during normal times," Gutierrez said. "But, in particular during this pandemic, people should not have to go to a polling site in person.” He and others hope everyone can vote free from confusion, suppression or intimidation this November.