Texas Supreme Court Justices
The Texas Supreme Court has issued an injunction preventing Harris County Clerk Christopher Hollins from going forward with his plan to send out mail in ballots to all 2.4 million voters in that county. I covered the initial suit by Texas AG Ken Paxton here.
Hollins responded to the Texas Supreme Court’s temporary halt. The plan to send out applications is still in the works.
“What the Supreme Court did here was to simply put a stamp on something Harris County has already agreed to do,” Hollins told ABC-13. “We made it clear that we are happy to have our day in court, and that we would be able to send out these applications on our chosen schedule while having our day in court — either this week or early next week. The Supreme Court’s stay merely rubberstamps what we already agreed to do.”
In response to Paxton’s lawsuit, Hollins stated Monday that he was prepared to meet with the Secretary of State about Harris County’s plan.
“If the Secretary of State would take the time to meet with us instead of jumping into court, they would see that the information we plan to share with voters provides clarity about voters’ rights and eligibility to vote by mail,” Hollins said in the statement.
Governor Abbott, who is not in favor of universal mail-in voting due to the likelihood of fraud and ballot harvesting, tweeted his reaction to the court’s action.
See also: Joe Takes “Questions” at Presser
Hollins has made one concession, after Paxton’s lawsuit was filed, saying he’ll just send mail-in applications to eligible voters over the age of 65. That’s around 295,000 voters. Texas Election law states mail in voting is restricted to those 65 and older.