Tarrant GOP says Texas Dems are trying to ‘hijack our elections’ with mail-in ballots
Tarrant County Republicans this week formally opposed any expansion of mail in ballots because of the novel coroanvirus.
The party filed documents with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals backing up the position Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have taken, that the use of mail in ballots shouldn’t be expanded beyond what now is allowed.
They filed a brief to oppose “the Democrat Party’s attempt to hijack our elections by expanding the vote by mail program in Texas,” Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Rick Barnes said in a statement. “While we support voting by mail for those who truly need it, there are those who have used the system to commit voter fraud.”
Court records show the Tarrant brief was filed past the deadline and wasn’t considered in the case. But it remains in the case file.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled May 27 that a lack of immunity to COVID-19 does not make a voter eligible for a mail in ballot.
Paxton had asked the court to weigh in to prevent election officials throughout Texas from processing mail in ballots for voters who cite disability but normally wouldn’t qualify. The court agreed that a lack of immunity to the virus doesn’t make voters eligible for mail in ballots, but justices wouldn’t order election officials to investigate mail in ballot applications already submitted.
“Mail in ballots are vulnerable to fraud,” Paxton has said. “Two-thirds of all election fraud cases prosecuted by my office involve mail ballot fraud, also known as ‘vote harvesting.’ Allowing widespread mail in ballots will lead to greater fraud and disenfranchise lawful voters.”
In 2018, weeks before the November midterm election, Paxton’s office alleged four Fort Worth women were part of an organized voter fraud ring on the city’s north side. The women were arrested and indicted on more than two dozen felony counts of voter fraud.
State officials allege that the women were paid to target older voters on Fort Worth’s north side to “harvest those ballots for specific candidates in 2016.” The charges address votes cast in the 2016 Democratic primary but also are tied to the 2015 City Council election, officials have said.
Their cases have yet to come up for trial.
On Thursday, Tarrant Republicans said they felt they had to weigh in on any possible expansion to mail in voting.
“This filing is the first step of many in taking direct opposition to Texas democrats who have used COVID-19 as an excuse to further their agenda,” Barnes said. “Democrats have long used the mantra ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ and that is evident now more than ever.
“Fortunately, the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling last week brought some common sense to the matter when they found that fear of getting sick does not constitute a disability that should prohibit someone from voting in person, as much as the Democrats would like to think that it does,” he said. “The Tarrant GOP stands to protect free and fair elections for all voters and we will not tolerate the abuse of a well-intended system to steal elections.”
In order to qualify to vote by mail under Texas law, voters must submit an application and be 65 or older, disabled, out of the county on Election Day and during in-person early voting or confined in jail.
Paxton has warned local officials that they could be subject to criminal sanctions if they advise voters who normally aren’t eligible to apply for mail in ballots.
But many note that, on the state’s form to apply for a mail in ballot, voters are required only to check a box marking which reason they are applying under — and they don’t have to provide any proof to show why they meet that designation.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
