Federal judge strikes down part of 2021 Texas election law, AG Paxton to appeal

A federal judge ruled that part of a 2021 Texas election integrity law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately moved to have the ruling blocked. The case is now before the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

At issue is an election integrity bill and key legislative priority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s in the 87th regular legislative session. Early in 2021, the Texas Senate passed the bill and the House failed to pass it. The bill failed a second time in a first special legislative session that was called to consider it. In an effort to sabotage the bill, House Democrats absconded to Washington, D.C.; many fled the state for nearly six weeks, claiming the bill would suppress voter turnout, particularly among minorities.

By late August 2021, after House Democrats returned to Austin, the bill was brought up for a vote again. After 12 hours of debate, multiple amendments filed and dozens of votes cast, the bill passed along partisan lines, The Center Square reported.

Abbott signed it into law Sept. 7, 2021, joined by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the authors of the bill – state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, and state Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction.

"Senate Bill 1 ensures trust and confidence in our elections system – and most importantly, it makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat," Abbott said when he signed it into law.

The bill creates uniform statewide voting hours, maintains and expands access to registered voters who need assistance, prohibits drive-through voting, and enhances transparency by authorizing poll watchers to observe more aspects of the election process. It eliminated drive-through and 24-hour early voting, which Harris County used during the pandemic in 2020. It also expanded early voting hours in some smaller and medium-sized counties and added ID requirements for voting by mail, according to the bill language.

It also banned distributing unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots, otherwise referred to as ballot harvesting, and sets penalties for election fraud and interference. Under the law, paid vote harvesting services were classified as a third-degree felony with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

Multiple organizations sued in August and September 2021 over different aspects of the bill, including La Union del Pueblo Entero, LULAC, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the ACLU of Texas.

On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled that the canvassing restriction in the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In his 78-page ruling, he said it “is an invalid restriction on speech, both on its face and as applied to Plaintiffs’ speech, in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as incorporated to Texas by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and unconstitutionally vague in violation of the due process clause the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

He also “immediately and permanently enjoined” the Attorney General, Secretary of State, and district attorneys of Travis, Dallas, and Hidalgo counties and the 34th Judicial District, and their respective employees, from enforcing any aspect of the provision of the law. The order also prohibits the Office of the Attorney General from investigating instances of election fraud under the portion of the election code enjoined by the decision.

In response to the ruling, Paxton said, “I will immediately move to block this unacceptable ruling so Texas can continue to defend its elections from bad actors seeking to undermine the ballot box. A ruling – weeks prior to an election – preventing my office from investigating potential election violations is deeply troubling and risks undermining public trust in our political process.”

Hughes said, “I’m glad the Fifth Circuit will be reviewing. I included this in SB1 to protect vulnerable voters – the elderly, first-time voters, voters with limited English proficiency. These are the voters most often preyed upon by vote harvesters and paid political operatives.”

The ACLU of Texas hailed the ruling, saying the judge “struck down a provision of sweeping anti-voter law S.B. 1 that restricted crucial get-out-the-vote efforts in Texas. This is a win for voting rights in the state, and for the organizations that help keep elections accessible.”