Republicans win court battles as they go after drop boxes in key states
By Jon Ward
Federal judges in the last week have upheld moves by Republicans in Texas and Ohio to limit drop boxes in their states, reversing lower court rulings that would have given voters more options for returning a mail ballot in person before Election Day.
The rulings are part of a pattern across the country this year for the Republican Party, which has tried to limit options for voters in many states. In Pennsylvania, the state Republican Party and President Trump’s reelection campaign sued to block drop boxes from being used at all but were denied by the state Supreme Court.
Drop boxes are secure receptacles managed by state and local election officials in which voters can deposit mail or absentee ballots — which are essentially the same thing in almost every state — and not have to worry about them getting lost in the mail or delivered too late to be counted. Counties assign bipartisan teams of election workers to retrieve the ballots and bring them back to the county office.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Oct. 1 limiting drop boxes to one per county. That decision was ruled unconstitutional on Oct. 9 by a federal judge, but then that ruling was overturned the next day by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
n Ohio, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose had limited drop boxes to one per county as well, despite vigorous pushback from Democrats who sued him over the decision. On Oct. 8, a federal judge overturned LaRose, only to see a different appellate court, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, reverse that a day later.
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Wednesday, October 14th 2020 at 11:54AM
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