The Genius Of The System

With less than a month left to vote by mail in the March primary election, hundreds of applications for mail-in ballots in Texas are being rejected as both voters and local election officials decipher the state's new ID requirements. https://t.co/yqNmyXqQA5

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) January 24, 2022

 So I have received two applications for mail-in ballots: one from the Democrats, one from the Republicans. This is because I’m over 65, the “magic age” in Texas when you are allowed to vote by mail as an absolute choice.

But the local election officials can’t send me an application because that’s now a Class 1 felony. No, I’m not kidding.

There are other problems. There is a new application form that requires ID information. That form was finally approved by the State in December. The outdated form is still available on-line. I found it first, and had to hunt quite a bit to find the new one. Google defaults to what is most popular, and obviously the older form is the one with more hits. People are actually turning in the old form. Their ballot application, of course, is being rejected.

The other major problem is the State didn’t tell local officials (right down to Travis County. The Capitol and state agency headquarters are in Travis County.) to sync their databases to the State ones. More rejections, because of bad data.

And people who do request an application form by mail, are stuck waiting because the form (again) wasn’t authorized until December, and some counties can’t get them printed yet. Supply chain problems and/or just waiting on the printers.

Vote by mail was simpler before the last legislative session. I was on a list after my first application. The county just asked me if I wanted to vote by mail again this year. Now I have to fill out a form every year, despite my “default” status. That form is confusing a lot of people over 65. Presumably a lot of those people are GOP. voters.

This was Senate bill 1, the first priority of the Texas GOP.

Lawmakers bear “the responsibility to foresee problems in the implementation of a law," said James Slattery, a senior staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, who testified on the ID issues at the Legislature. 

 “They are now reaping what they've sown,” said Slattery. “Though I should say it’s really the voter reaping what they've sown, which is the tragedy of all this. At the moment, it’s the voters that are facing the consequences.”

Yup.