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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warns elections officials against expanding curbside voting

He sent out a letter Friday after a Texas GOP lawsuit to limit curbside voting in Harris County was dismissed by a state appeals court.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is warning county elections administrators statewide against encouraging curbside voting for anyone who doesn’t meet the state’s narrow rules for who qualifies.

In a letter sent Friday, Paxton reminded officials that the Texas Election Code does not allow curbside voting for people who “simply wish to vote from the comfort of their cars.”

The code has long allowed curbside voting only if a voter is sick, has a physical condition that requires assistance, or would risk their health by venturing inside a polling location.

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The Texas Democratic Party has sought to expand the practice during the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that in-person voting increases the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19, and that that risk could discourage voter participation.

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“Indicted Ken Paxton has bigger things to worry about than trying to stop Texans from voting in the middle of a pandemic,” Texas Democratic Party spokesman Abhi Rahman said in a statement. “Paxton is just another Republican in the long list of them who are terrified of seeing Texans vote and will do anything to hold onto power.”

The rules are difficult to enforce, as voters are not required to prove they qualify for curbside voting.

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“You ask for it, you get it,” Tarrant County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia said during an Oct. 1 town hall on voting. “If you say, ‘Hey, I had knee surgery yesterday; I can’t walk,’ We’re not going to say ‘show me your scar.’ We’re going to say, ‘We’ll go get the machine for you.’”

Fear of getting the coronavirus does not qualify a voter for curbside voting, Paxton wrote.

“While election officials should not ordinarily question a voter’s good-faith representation that the voter is physically unable to enter a polling place, officials should not actively encourage voters to engage in unauthorized curbside voting when they fail to meet the requisite legal criteria,” Paxton wrote.

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The Texas Republican Party sued over the practice in Harris County on Monday in a last-ditch effort to limit it. Harris County has encouraged qualified voters to use the curbside method, and opened drive-through polling locations where voters are handed a voting machine through their vehicle’s window.

Harris County conducted a pilot program of the method for the July primaries that did not attract the same legal scrutiny.

The GOP lawsuit, which was thrown out by a state appeals court Tuesday because it was filed too late, would have halted the drive-through practice and limited curbside voting to those who sign a sworn application saying they qualify for it.

There is no language in the state Election Code that requires such an application.

The Texas GOP appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday, and a separate, matching lawsuit by a Houston conservative activist and Harris County Republicans was also filed with the court.

Paxton’s letter alluded to the use of drive-through voting in “some political subdivisions” and discouraged the practice.

The Texas GOP called Paxton’s letter “accurate” and slammed Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins for expanding the practice for the election.

“[Collins] is telling all Harris County residents that they are eligible for curbside voting when he knows that is not the case. Any voter that does not qualify to vote curbside under narrow statutory language would be voting illegally if allowed to vote drive through," Texas GOP spokesman Luke Twombly said in a statement.

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“The Texas Supreme Court has already held in the context of absentee ballots that a lack of immunity to and fear of COVID-19 is not a disability," Twombly added. “It is simply a political maneuver by the Democrat partisan, Chris Hollins, to undermine electoral integrity.”

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