Texas' New Voting Law Is an 'Absolute Nightmare'

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Noah Bookbinder
@NoahBookbinder
The effects of Texas’ new voting law—including a rise in rejected mail-in voting applications & ballots and limited resources for election workers—are a reminder of why we need to keep up the fight to pass national voting rights protections.

thedailybeast.com
Texas’ New Voting Law Is an ‘Absolute Nightmare’
Election administrators in Texas are reporting a record number of ballot rejections—and early voting has only just begun.
12:30 PM · Feb 14, 2022

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-voting-law-sb1-is-absolute-nightmare


A rapid rise in rejected mail-in voting applications and ballots. Limited resources among election workers. Confusion galore, and a March 1 primary election quickly approaching.

This is the reality in Texas as SB 1—a controversial voting bill signed into law last year—goes into effect. With primary voting already underway, election officials, advocates, and everyday voters are struggling to navigate the newly enacted rules, with little room for error.

And folks on the ground are sounding the alarm, concerned about disenfranchisement among perfectly eligible voting populations.

“Honestly, it’s been an absolute nightmare,” Charlie Bonner, communications director for the voting-rights group MOVE Texas, told The Daily Beast.

SB 1 is jam-packed with new rules for voting throughout Texas. Among those is a provision requiring voters to provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on their mail-in voting applications and ballots. The number provided must match what the state has on file for any given voter.

*snip*

[MontanaMama]

1. That's probably the goal.

Make it so difficult that people don't bother.

[onecaliberal]

2. That is no question the goal. It's a classic strategy. Make it too hard for people to bother.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Of course it's a nightmare! THAT WAS THE WHOLE IDEA.

[Chainfire]

4. Oh Hell, give them a break...

Texas just wants to end "mob rule." (AKA Democracy) Running the country is too damn important for the people to have a say in it.

[sakabatou]

5. Once again, Republicans show that they hate democracy.

[northoftheborder]

6. Our County Elections clerk....

said that 50 percent of mailed ballots are failing to be accepted because of confusion of having to put a number (either driver's license or SS #) or the wrong one (has to match the one given when originally registering) on the envelope. Then the elections office has to contact each one of those people and let them correct their number entry, causing huge extra obligations on that office to accomplish in time, and of course extra undue stress on the voter.

[Bettie]

7. So, if you registered to vote with your SSN

and use your DL number, your ballot is rejected? Wow, I registered to vote over 20 years ago...I wouldn't recall that.

[exboyfil]

8. Yes - It seems like it should say provide both if uncertain

Also it should be a state issued DMV ID card that is most commonly a DL. They should have spent billions getting everyone such a card (since SS is not supposed to be used for identification). The ID card should also be free - anything more is a poll tax.

I think we should have leaned into the ID thing early on. That is really the only club they have in their bag (ineligible voters voting). We could have turned it by using it as an opportunity to also register to vote.

[SoCalDavidS]

9. Invest Funding Elsewhere

Turning TX Blue was highly unlikely to begin with. Now it's pretty much impossible. Spend the money in states where the Democrats have a chance.