A ruling by the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court has blocked a plan by the City of Houston, Texas' largest city, from sending ballots to every registered voter to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on voting in-person in November. With Dems expecting to make serious inroads in the election, Rethug courts and politicians are doing everything they can to limit access to the ballot, including the despicable elimination of ballot drop-off boxes:
"Polls show unusually tight races this year in America’s biggest red state, intensifying battles over voting access. Texas is one of just five states not allowing widespread mail-in voting this year. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has resisted calls to expand eligibility and courts have sided with GOP leaders who say fear of catching COVID-19 doesn’t qualify voters for mail-in ballots. Last week, Abbott was sued after he barred Texas’ 254 counties from operating more than one drop-off box each for absentee ballots. Harris County and other Democratic-led counties have had to close dozens of drop-off locations as a result."
Given the hold the Rethugs have on the state supreme court, any further actions by Houston officials to protect access to the ballot seem an uphill battle at best. They can't win on the basis of an honest debate about their policies, which are generally unpopular, so they have to resort to the suppression of votes in Democratic cities and districts, and by rigging the voting process in favor of their demographic. Perhaps this year, enough people will be outraged sufficiently to crawl over broken glass to vote, no matter the Rethug obstacles placed in their path.
