Texas county rejects half of mail-in ballot applications amid new voter restrictions

[Elderberry]

The Guardian by Oliver Milman 1/15/2022

Election officials in the Texas county that includes the state capital, Austin, have rejected about half of applications for mail-in ballots, following new voting restrictions brought in by Republicans.

The voter identification rules have led to the rejection of about half of the 700 mail-in ballots requested in Travis county for primary elections in March, according to the county’s clerk.

The denied ballots in Travis county follow a similar trend across Texas, with officials in Harris county, which includes the city of Houston, and Bexar county, which includes San Antonio, also turning down a substantial number of mail-in ballot applications.

In Texas, state Republicans last year enacted new voting laws that require absentee voters to include their driver’s license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their social security number on their applications. Counties then have to match this information with voter profiles to approve them for a mail-in ballot.

The new rules ( This article is more than 4 months old) 

The Texas legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a new bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on voting access in the state. The restrictions would only add to those already in place in Texas, which has some of the most burdensome voting requirements in the US and was among the states with the lowest voter turnout in 2020.

also ban drive-through and 24-hour voting and allow more access to partisan poll watchers. The Biden administration has decried the wave of voting restrictions around the country as undemocratic and the US justice department has filed a lawsuit claiming that Texas’ new laws disenfranchised eligible voters contrary to their civil rights.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/15/texas-county-rejects-half-of-mail-in-ballot-applications-amid-new-voter-restrictions

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The Guardian by Oliver Milman 1/15/2022

Election officials in the Texas county that includes the state capital, Austin, have rejected about half of applications for mail-in ballots, following new voting restrictions brought in by Republicans.

The voter identification rules have led to the rejection of about half of the 700 mail-in ballots requested in Travis county for primary elections in March, according to the county’s clerk.

The denied ballots in Travis county follow a similar trend across Texas, with officials in Harris county, which includes the city of Houston, and Bexar county, which includes San Antonio, also turning down a substantial number of mail-in ballot applications.

In Texas, state Republicans last year enacted new voting laws that require absentee voters to include their driver’s license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their social security number on their applications. Counties then have to match this information with voter profiles to approve them for a mail-in ballot.

The new rules ( This article is more than 4 months old)  also ban drive-through and 24-hour voting and allow more access to partisan poll watchers. The Biden administration has decried the wave of voting restrictions around the country as undemocratic and the US justice department has filed a lawsuit claiming that Texas’ new laws disenfranchised eligible voters contrary to their civil rights.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/15/texas-county-rejects-half-of-mail-in-ballot-applications-amid-new-voter-restrictions

As dishonest a statement seen is awhile.

Those new voting measures were passed by the legislature, which is the legal authority.  To say 'passed by Republicans' is misleading.

The new mail in voting laws include the following:

New vote-by-mail ID mandates
Texans who are voting by mail -- those who are over age 65, out of the county on Election Day or have a disability or illness that prevents them from voting in person are eligible -- will now need to provide either their driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number twice: once on their absentee ballot application forms and once on the envelope in which they return their ballots.
Those numbers will then be matched against voters' records to confirm they are who they say they are -- a change from the current signature matching process. Those whose votes are at risk of being rejected because of technical errors can make corrections online under the new law. If time is short, counties can notify voters by phone or email that they can cancel their mail-in ballots and vote in person.
Bans officials from mailing unsolicited mail-in ballot applications
The bill would make it a felony for a public official to send someone a mail-in ballot application the person did not request, or to pre-fill any part of any mail-in ballot application they are sending to someone.

It also prohibits public officials from being able to "facilitate" the unsolicited distribution of absentee ballots by third parties -- which means local elections officials cannot provide absentee ballot request forms to get-out-the-vote groups. Political parties can still send unsolicited absentee ballot applications, but will have to pay for them, according to the law.
Harris County tried in 2020 to send an application to each of its registered voters, but the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state election code did not allow the mailing of unsolicited applications. And some other counties sent an application to all registered voters who were 65 and older by Election Day, the only age group that is automatically eligible to vote by mail in Texas.

[Fishrrman]

"Texas county rejects half of mail-in ballot applications..."

Only half ???

They should have rejected almost ALL of them...!