The #Texas drive-thru case crystalizes the extremism of the GOP's legal strategy to gut voting rights. Rs say the US Constitution requires a federal court to reach in & declare drive-thru voting in Harris Cty illegal. That would mean throwing out 100,000+ ballots ALREADY CAST. /1

The availability of drive-thru voting would seem a matter of state law. Indeed, the Rs went to the TX Supreme Court 2 wks ago and lost. Harris County had announced drive-thru voting in June and received state approval. Suing now, after 100K had used it, was unseemly. /2

Rs filed again at SCOTX Tuesday night, then went to federal court on Wednesday b/c their radical legal theory--that federal courts get to interpret and defend the text of state statutes, without regard to state courts--was suddenly gaining steam. From their brief last night: /3

This is the same legal theory Rs pressed in PA and NC, winning the sympathy of Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas. The same theory the 8th Cir just applied in MN, signaling it would invalidate ballots voters were told could arrive by 11/10. /4 https://twitter.com/chiraagbains/status/1321966682949275649?s=20

It's a franken-argument that doubles down on #BushvGore. Rs say it violates equal protection for Harris to get drive-thrus when other counties don't. They rely exclusively on Bush v. Gore even though that case said its EP analysis was "limited to the present circumstances." /5

Nevermind that election practices are primarily local, Harris County added drive-thru voting to deal with COVID19 with the Secretary of State's approval, and other counties could have too. /6

Harris County, by the way, is where 25% of Texas's Black residents and 18% of its Latinx residents live. /7

The worst thing, of course, is that voters relied on these rules. Now, after over 100,000 people have used drive-thru voting, with COVID cases rising and the election almost complete, Republicans want their ballots discarded.

That is flagrantly, shocking undemocratic. /8