Ahead of November, Texas Democrats to send record number of mail-in ballot applications
With the November general election less than three months away, the Texas Democratic Party announced Monday its effort to send more than 815,000 vote-by-mail applications to Texas voters this month alone.
With the launch of a general election “Vote-by-Mail Fund” the party aims to fully-fund its largest vote-by-mail program in its history. With August’s push, the party said it will have sent a record 1.7 million applications this cycle.
“Elections are won or lost with vote-by-mail. Now more than ever, to have our seniors vote safely, voting by mail is the best option for them,” Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia said in a statement.
Vote-by-mail has become a prominent issue amid the novel coronavirus’ outbreak, with the Texas Democratic Party and civil rights groups launching multiple legal challenges in an attempt to expand who qualifies for a mail-in ballot.
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.
The Texas Democratic Party had raised concerns over Texans risking their health by visiting polling places while the virus spreads. Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had argued that expanding access to mail-in ballots would lead to increased voter fraud, and said that a fear of contracting COVID-19 would not meet the state’s eligibility requirements.
Ahead of the July runoff election, back-and-forth rulings led to multiple starts and stops to greatly expanding access, with the issue eventually reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to lift a lower court’s stay to allow all eligible Texas voters to qualify for a mail-in ballot to avoid contracting COVID-19.
But the case is not yet over, as the Texas Democratic Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear it on the merits of the claim that Texas’ vote-by-mail restrictions violate provisions of the 26th Amendment — which prohibits age from being used as the basis to deny someone the right to vote.
For the July runoff elections, Tarrant County saw an increase in mail-in ballot requests, with 31,457 mailed out, according to county data. Of those, 19,360 applications were from Democrats, 11,088 were from Republicans and 1,009 requests had no party listed.
That’s over 10,200 more requests than the 21,191 mail-in ballots requested in Tarrant County for the presidential primary runoff in May 2016.
Democrats are targeting five Republican-held House seats in Tarrant County in an effort to wrest control from the Republican-controlled majority for the first time in nearly two decades.
It remains to be seen which direction Tarrant County will sway in the 2020 election, after House Democrats gained 12 seats and Tarrant County went blue for Beto O’Rourke over Ted Cruz in the race for U.S. Senate in 2018.
Garcia said Monday’s investment in the party’s vote-by-mail program is emblematic of Texas being “the biggest battleground state.”
“We will continue to register new voters, expand the electorate, fight back against all Republican attempts to suppress the vote, and harness the energy and enthusiasm that we’ve seen across the state,” Garcia said in a statement.
This November, Texas voters will weigh in on the presidential race, decide between Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic nominee MJ Hegar and cast their vote in a slew of Texas House races.
Monday, Oct. 5 is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election. Early voting begins Oct. 13 and lasts through Oct. 30.
