AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in San Antonio has halted a provision of the controversial election law Senate Bill 1 that made it a crime for election officials to solicit mail-in ballots.
Federal District Judge Xavier Rodriguez made the ruling Friday night after taking testimony on a request for an injunction against the law. His ruling found that SB 1 violated the free speech rights of election administrators seeking to inform voters about mail-in ballots.
The ruling comes as election administrators across Texas have been preparing to conduct the first statewide election since SB 1 took effect in December. Early voting for March 1′s primary begins Monday.
The ruling blocks an aspect of SB 1 that was passed last year into law in reaction to efforts from a Harris County election administrator who attempted to mail absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in the state’s most populous county ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Rodriguez, in his ruling, said that election officials’ free speech protections extend to promoting mail-in voting. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office argued that as government employees, the state could regulate what they say related to absentee voting.
The plaintiffs, however, are not employees of the state.
“Thus, the State’s assertion that it is entitled to regulate Longoria and Morgan’s official communications as their employer is wholly unavailing,” Rodriguez said in the ruling.
There was no immediate word from Paxton’s office about the possibility of an appeal.
The lawsuit was brought by Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria and Cathy Morgan, a volunteer deputy registrar in Travis and Williamson Counties.
The remainder of SB 1 remains in effect. But the ruling blocks any prosecutor from bringing charges against election workers who promote mail-in voting.
The law carried felony penalties of at least six months in jail and a $10,000 fine for a violation. Civil enforcement provisions of the same “anti-solicitation” portion of the law were also blocked.
SB 1 is also being challenged by the Department of Justice in a different suit that focuses on its ID requirements for mail-in ballots and the law’s effect on voters with disabilities.
Prior to Friday’s ruling, SB 1 has left many election administrators across Texas treading carefully as they navigate the first statewide elections held since the law took effect.
At Friday’s hearing in a San Antonio federal court, Longoria testified about the chilling effect SB 1 has had on her office’s ability to conduct voter outreach. She described how she can freely speak to voters about registering to vote or encourage voters to come to polls, but when it comes to mail-in ballots, criminal penalties including a $10,000 fine and a minimum six month sentence have stopped her in her tracks.
“I stop mid-sentence sometimes at these town halls and say ‘The law prevents me from saying much more. If you have a question good luck and call us,’” Longoria said.
The law is what prompted Democrats to flee Austin this summer in an attempt to derail the controversial law and to push Congress to pass the new voting protections. Neither effort was successful.
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