In Texas, Republicans fight voting by mail expansion while encouraging their voters to use it – By Alexa Ura and Abby Livingston (Texas Tribune) / Sept 4 2020
What was once a lightly used and largely uncontroversial voting option in Texas, one even Republicans relied on, is now the crux of the latest fight over who gets to vote and, equally as crucial in a pandemic, who has access to safe voting.
Standing in front of a blue curtain adorned with the seal of the Republican Party of Texas, Allen West offered up what he deemed an “instructional video” for Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins.
It had been a week since Hollins had announced his office would send an application for a mail-in ballot to every registered voter in the county — all 2.4 million of them. Since then, his plans had sparked alarm among top state Republicans, leading to two lawsuits meant to halt it before he could get the applications out.
Purporting to detail the difference between what Hollins, a Democrat, wanted to pursue and “what is really lawful,” West — who recently took the reins of the Texas GOP — inaccurately claimed Democrats were pursuing a “wanton mailing out of ballots.”
“There’s a wrong way and there’s a right way,” West said, touting the GOP’s approach of contacting voters and reminding them to send in their applications.
Continue to article: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/04/texas-republicans-vote-by-mail/
