Attorney General Ken Paxton set to fight
it in court.
AUSTIN (Breaking News) — Texans should apply for their mail-in ballots ASAP. An injunction went into effect April 20, 2020, that allows all voters to apply to vote by mail. Previously, you could only qualify if you were 65 or older, would be out of the county on Election Day, are in jail or disabled. According to the court ruling, you can check disabled because voting in person can cause bodily harm.
The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will fight this in court, but until another order is in place, all applications that are processed will be valid. You can visit your County Clerk’s site to download the application for Ballot by Mail. The Travis County site is here.
Check the box for “Annual Application” if you want this to apply to all elections. Check the party affiliation box and “Any Resulting Run-off” box, if you want to vote in the primary run-off now scheduled for July.
The court injunction may be overturned, but it is time to keep the pressure on state officials for a virus-free voting option. The Texas Association for Retired Americans (TARA) will be urging Texas governor Greg Abbott to extend the Ballot by Mail option to all Texans. You can call the governor at (512) 463-1782 with this message:
No Texan should have to put their life at risk to vote. Governor Abbott, under your emergency powers, I’m asking you to extend the right that Texas seniors now have to ALL Texans so that they may Vote by Mail. We must protect the health and lives of election workers as well as voters. Allowing Texans to mail in their ballots will strengthen and protect our democracy.
Visit TARA Austin’s Facebook page for updates on this campaign.
[Alice Embree is an Austin writer and activist who serves on the board of directors of the New Journalism Project and is director of NJP Publishing. Embree, who was active in the women’s movement and contributed to Sisterhood is Powerful, was a founder of The Rag, and is an editor of the book, Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper.]
- Read more articles by Alice Embree on The Rag Blog.
The battle for free and fair elections in the USA is a major thing, so thanks for keeping us informed. Everyone needs to vote!
From Allen Young:
Thank you, Alice Embree, for your informative article about voting in Texas. Throughout the USA, there are going to be battles over free and fair voting and we all need to be aware of this. There are powerful forces that want to put an end to our democracy. We need to vote and make sure that everyone else can vote. Keep up the good work.