On Friday, Federal Judge Robert Pitman blocked Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s order to only provide one ballot dropbox per Texas county, a move that was largely criticized as a blatant attempt at voter disenfranchisement as an unprecedented number of Texans are expected to drop off their ballots rather than risk possible COVID-19 exposure by voting in-person at a polling station.
While Abbott said his order was intended to prevent voter fraud, something that is hardly a widespread problem, it also would have predominantly disadvantaged Democrats since larger counties with Democrat-leaning urban centers would’ve had fewer places to accept drop-off votes. More Democrats are expected to avoid in-person voting during the coming election.
In his decision, Pitman, District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, wrote, “By limiting ballot return centers to one per county, older and disabled voters living in Texas’s largest and most populous counties must travel further distances to more crowded ballot return centers where they would be at an increased risk of being infected by the coronavirus in order to exercise their right to vote and have it counted.”
Pitman said that Abbott didn’t prove that voter fraud is a legitimate issue for denying thousands of voters drop-off ballot access barely a month before the election.
While numerous polls show Republican President Donald Trump beating Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Texas by about 4.5 points, Democrats believe the state could turn blue if enough Democrats vote.