Harris County election officers on Friday introduced that of the 36,878 mail ballots won for the March 1 number one, a complete of 6,888, or 19%, have been rejected “as an immediate results of Senate Invoice 1.”
Beneath the legislation, electorate needed to come with a Texas identity quantity or a partial Social Safety quantity when returning their mail-in ballots. Then again, the identity quantity used should fit one of the crucial numbers at the voter’s registration file. Officers famous that the mail ballots have been flagged for rejection “in particular because of ID problems.”
The rejection charge is an important soar from earlier years. In 2018, Harris County rejected best 135 mail-in ballots of a complete of 48,473 won, officers mentioned in a information unlock.
Officers mentioned the elections place of work doubled its team of workers with the intention to assist electorate navigate the brand new laws, together with sending electorate a letter on tips on how to repair their ballots so they might be counted.
“Just about 20% of votes forged via mail weren’t counted because of SB1. That is 6,888 registered electorate who have been silenced. Those restrictive balloting regulations proceed to undermine our efforts to increase voter get admission to and could have repercussions for plenty of elections to return,” mentioned Isabel Longoria, Harris County elections administrator.
In the meantime, in Travis County, house to the state capital of Austin, the rejection charge was once 8%, or 948 mail-in ballots have been rejected of a complete 10,656, in keeping with Victoria Hinojosa, a spokeswoman within the election place of work. Hinojosa in the past advised CNN that the county’s rejection charge in 2018 was once about 2%.
As a result of the rejection charges, the place of work of Secretary of State John Scott mentioned it might center of attention on voter training outreach efforts at the new mail-in balloting necessities, spokesman Sam Taylor mentioned.
“Whilst in years previous we now have centered our voter training efforts on in-person ID necessities, this yr we also are devoting a good portion of our voter training marketing campaign to improving consciousness of the brand new mail-in poll ID necessities,” Taylor mentioned. “We’re assured we now have the information and analysis we want to follow any courses realized all over the main to an much more tough voter training marketing campaign heading into the November Normal Election.”
Following stories of the top rejection charges, balloting rights advocates referred to as once more for federal balloting rights law.
“The federal Vote casting Rights Act should be restored to make certain that each voter in Texas … has equivalent get admission to to the poll field and is secure from unfair regulations and practices that make it tougher for other people to vote,” mentioned Grace Chimene, president of the League of Girls Electorate of Texas, in a observation to CNN.
“This is a tragedy for our democracy when state leaders make a selection to improve a partisan time table as an alternative of electorate when writing state election legislation leading to an enormous rejection of vote-by-mail ballots,” Chimene added.
This tale has been up to date with further main points Friday.
