Texas Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to kill drive-thru voting
The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday turned away GOP-led efforts to shut down 10 drive-thru early voting sites in Harris County, quelling fears about the legality of 75,000 ballots already cast by voters in their vehicles.
The court’s order gave no reason for denying separate requests to intervene by the Texas Republican Party and the Harris County GOP, but one member of the all-Republican court disagreed.
Justice John Devine said he would have blocked drive-thru voting until the court could determine whether the new form of voting meets the state law definition of “polling places.”
Devine’s dissenting opinion also argued that drive-thru voting stretched election law beyond common-sense understanding, adding: “I struggle to see how the Election Code contemplates such a novel concoction.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo expressed relief.
“This is a victory for democracy, for the thousands of courageous voters who have participated, even in the face of suppression attempts, and it’s a fair interpretation of the law,” the Democrat said via Twitter.
Earlier Thursday, Hidalgo asked Gov. Greg Abbott to guarantee the validity of votes cast in drive-thru settings, saying she feared the Republican challenges were laying the groundwork to toss out the ballots in “an outrageous act of voter suppression.”
In its petition to the state Supreme Court, the state GOP argued that drive-thru voting booths violated the state law that strictly limits curbside voting to those who have submitted sworn applications verifying that they are sick, disabled or in danger of harm if required to vote inside a polling location.
https://www.statesman.com/news/20201022/texas-supreme-court-rejects-gop-bid-to-kill-drive-thru-voting
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