Texas Republicans have asked a federal judge to throw out 100,000 ballots in Harris County cast through curbside voting. They drew Judge Andrew Hanen, one of the most notoriously partisan Republican judges in the entire federal judiciary. This is alarming. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20401146/sd-tex-20-cv-03709.pdf
Judge Hanen has already scheduled an emergency hearing for Monday morning—without even giving Harris County a chance to file a response brief. This, too, is extremely concerning. It looks like he may be rushing to throw out 100,000 disproportionately Democratic votes.
Texas Republicans are deploying the theory—recently endorsed by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh—that only state legislatures have authority over elections. Because the Harris County Clerk implemented drive-through voting, Republicans say all 100,000 ballots must be tossed.
Two partisan federal judges are already trying to nullify thousands of Minnesota ballots under this radical theory. I am deeply concerned that Judge Hanen, too, will use it to disenfranchise 100,000 Texans on the eve of Election Day. This is frightening. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/minnesota-judges-barrett-absentee-ballots.html
I want to clarify one point: While I said "curbside voting" in this thread, the better term is "drive-through voting." Though most of us may use these terms interchangeably, they're different procedures in Texas, and Republicans are specifically going after drive-through voting.
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