The state relies “on untrained officials to ‘eye-ball’ a signature, leaving the sacred right to vote up to chance,” said Hani Mirza, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project who is helping represent the plaintiffs. “It’s time that we modernize this process and ensure that not one single Texan has their ballot thrown out for arbitrary reasons.”
The suit says Texas is violating the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law, by not implementing a uniform, statewide standard for verifying the signatures. It also contends that voters are being denied the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of due process because they do not have a chance to verify their signatures before a ballot is rejected.
The signature verification process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, the suit argues, because voters with disabilities may not be able to make previous signatures match.
Using a mail-in ballot in Texas is restricted. Only people who are at least 65 years old, or are out of their county during early voting periods and on Election Day, or have a disability, or are in jail but eligible to vote can use such ballots.
The plaintiffs want a federal judge to either block officials from rejecting a mail-in ballot because signatures are ruled not to match or to require the officials to give voters a chance to fix their ballots before the votes are rejected.
= new reply since forum marked as read