Because of folks stupidity, Texas rejects hundreds of mail ballot applications under new voting limits.
The Texas cry has already started.
An example of a new mail in ballot request form sits on display as Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir speaks to the media after Travis County election officials said that due to Texas' new voting law SB1, half of vote-by-mail applications for March primaries had been rejected, in Austin, Texas, U.S. January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Sergio Flores
(Reuters) - Texas election officials have rejected hundreds of mail-in ballot applications, abiding by a new Republican-backed law just weeks before a March 1 primary kicks off this year's U.S. election cycle. So what’s the issue?
A Travis county clerk who’s retiring at the end of the month calls it voter suppression. The rejection of mail in ballots. The county, home to the state capital Austin, invalidated approximately 300 applications because people failed to meet the law's stricter identification requirements. But we have the rest of the story.
We have this from Reuters.
DeBeauvoir said Secretary of State John Scott's office had failed to give local officials enough guidance on how to help voters cure any defects.
In response, Sam Taylor, a spokesperson for Scott's office, said state officials reached out to Travis County last week to advise staff on the proper process and noted that the county's own estimated rejection rate went down from 50% to 27% following that guidance. So under the new law, the rejection rate went down. And that’s voter suppression how?
He said clerks have been instructed to accept applications in which voters have included both their license and Social Security number, as long as one of them matches what is on file.