To Vote In Texas

Valerie Gonzalez Street
3 min readMay 14, 2020

It’s sadly become clear that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is determined to make it as hard as possible for Texas voters to cast their votes safely this year. Yesterday he took the step of asking the Texas Supreme Court to order election officials in five counties to reject mail-in ballot applications from voters who want to protect themselves against coronavirus at the polls.

Politics are once again overriding what should simply be state leaders acting in the best interests of all voters.

Even as claims that vote by mail causes rampant fraudulent voting have been shown time and again to be lacking in substantial evidence. Even as studies show no political advantage to any one party with the use of vote by mail. Even as multiple states have seen the success of vote by mail elections and election officials of both parties from other states have sought to offer their voters this path amidst the national health crisis that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Even as the CDC has made the recommendation that vote by mail is a safe voting option for this election year with a COVID-19 pandemic, along with the recommendations of other healthcare professionals.

Earlier this week, Governor Abbott took an important first step by extending the early vote period, which was slated to begin on July 6th and will now begin on June 29th. This is necessary and it serves to give Texas voters more time to be able to cast their ballots while also allowing polling places and election workers more opportunity to adequately address safety concerns for all who show up for in-person voting.

This alone can’t be the fix though. Just like voting by mail can’t stand as the fix-all either. Vote by mail doesn’t necessarily help voters without access to traditional mailing addresses. It can leave out those who require in-person language assistance. It can impact voters with disabilities. And no one should dismiss the patterns of uneven access to vote by mail when it comes to black voters and other communities of color.
For more, please see the letter Texas Progressive Action Network signed onto in support of additional funding for election assistance amidst COVID-19.

No, vote by mail should not be offered up as the only go-to option for voters in 2020. But when faced with a highly contagious and destructive virus, where safe social distancing is still one of our best defenses, vote by mail should be one option. And it should be an option to all Texas voters — not just those who fall within the scope of the very tightly defined boundaries Texas has in place now.

It can’t always be the knee jerk reaction of state officials to want to make voting in Texas as hard as possible as often as possible. When we can absolutely work towards implementing safe solutions for voters this election cycle, it is just indefensible to turn our backs on Texas voters now and leave them with the cold message that they should have to choose between their vote or their health. No voter should have to make that choice ever.

Imagine the masses, not just in Texas but nationwide, showing up to the polls this November at what could be a critically important time considering any possible resurgence of the coronavirus.
Scenes from Wisconsin, but this time all across the country.

Imagine the lines — the sheer number of voters that cycle through any one precinct or vote center — the necessary extra procedures that one would expect to see in place for every voter and every vote cast in order to try to mitigate community spread. Imagine the burden of fear many voters would be forced to carry that day.

Now stop and consider how preventable some of this might be if our leaders cut the politics now and start planning for a safer election in the months to come. We just want to vote safely.

Latest:
A state appeals court ruled Thursday, 5/14, that an order requiring greatly expanded mail-in voting will remain in force for now.

Later still:
5/15 — Texas Supreme Court puts expansion of voting by mail on hold

Enough of this, take action:
Texas Voters Want A Safe Vote

Additional reading:
Newman, Lili Hay. “Vote by Mail Isn’t Perfect. But It’s Essential in a Pandemic.” Wired. 4/09/2020.

Bowman, Bridget. “Vote-by-mail states don’t see the rampant fraud that alarms Trump.” Roll Call. 4/16/2020.

Daniel M. Thompson, Jennifer Wu, Jesse Yode, Andrew B. Hall. “Universal Vote-by-Mail Has No Impact on Partisan Turnout or Vote Share.” Democracy & Polarization Lab, Stanford University. 5/06/2020

--

--

Valerie Gonzalez Street

Voting rights dork. Art lover when I can. President of Our Vote Texas. Frequently wishing I was out in the desert. https://ourvotetexas.org/