Federal court overturns Texas' repeal of straight ticket voting option

[mystery-ak]

Federal court overturns Texas' repeal of straight ticket voting option
By Tal Axelrod - 09/25/20 08:31 PM EDT

A federal judge issued a ruling late Friday blocking Texas from eliminating straight-ticket voting as an option for the state’s voters in this year’s election.

The ruling from District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo comes less than three weeks before early voting begins in the Lone Star State. The decision will keep the option open for voters to vote for all candidates of one party by selecting that choice at the top of their ballots.

Marmolejo ruled that removing the option would “cause irreparable injury” to voters “by creating mass lines at the polls and increasing the amount of time voters are exposed to COVID-19” and “likely to cause confusion among voters.”

Most states do not offer a straight-ticket option, but the practice has become popular in Texas, which notoriously has long ballots.

more
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/518393-federal-court-overturns-texas-repeal-of-straight-ticket-voting

[Elderberry]

Federal judge blocks Texas from implementing repeal of straight-ticket voting

Dallas News By James Barragán 9/25/2020

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/09/25/federal-judge-blocks-texas-from-implementing-repeal-of-straight-ticket-voting/

State officials had not issued a statement on the order as of late Friday night, but they are expected to appeal the injunction to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican from Houston, said the court’s ruling would not hold.

“[The] 5th Circuit has sided with existing Texas election law and 70,000 military ballots are out, and [the] 2017 law has been prepared for by election administrators,” Bettencourt said. “Activist federal judge will be overruled.”

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Long lines at polls?

That excuse is so thin it is laughable.

Ignore this one, Texas.

Judges do not decide how we should vote.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This judge was not even born in this country.

I would make it a new law that only citizens born here could become federal judges.

Perhaps they would be able to understand our laws better.

[PeteS in CA]

AFAIK, California has never had straight-ticket voting. Personally I think it should be banned. It's No-Thought Voting!