Texas COVID-19 Election Relief

Lawsuit filed on behalf of Voto Latino, the Texas State Conference of the NAACP, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans and individual voters asking the state to address four pillars necessary to expand and protect mail-in voting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the complaint asks Texas to provide prepaid postage for absentee ballots, accept all ballots postmarked on or before Election Day, prohibit enforcement of signature matching, allow voters the opportunity to correct a signature mismatch and allow voters to designate any third party to collect their voted and sealed absentee ballots. The district court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss. The Texas secretary of state appealed this decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the lawsuit “is barred by sovereign immunity because the Secretary does not enforce the challenged provisions.” The 5th Circuit remanded the case back to the district court with instructions to dismiss the plaintiffs claims for lack of jurisdiction. On July 5, the district court issued a final order dismissing the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Last updated: July 6, 2022 9:23 am EST