Texas Law Censoring Election Officials on Mail Voting Blocked

This Press Release is published by The Brennan Center for Justice. Here is an excerpt:

Order Prohib­its Attor­ney General, District Attor­neys in Three Counties from Penal­iz­ing Elec­tion Offi­cials and Public Offi­cials Who Encour­age Eligible Voters to Vote by Mail

Relief Comes in Time for Texas’s Febru­ary 18 Dead­line to Apply to Vote by Mail in March 1 Primary

Tonight a U.S. district court judge gran­ted a prelim­in­ary injunc­tion against the part of Texas’s S.B. 1 making it a crime for elec­tion offi­cials and elec­tion work­ers to encour­age Texans to apply to vote by mail. Judge Xavier Rodrig­uez of the United States District Court for the West­ern District of Texas issued the order in response to the plaintiffs’ motion in Longoria v. Paxton. It prohib­its the district attor­neys in three counties – Harris, Travis, and Willi­am­son – from prosec­ut­ing plaintiffs under the chal­lenged law. It also prohib­its the Texas attor­ney general and the same district attor­neys from seek­ing civil penal­ties. In an opin­ion accom­pa­ny­ing the order, Judge Rodrig­uez stated that this part of S.B. 1 likely viol­ates the First Amend­ment.

The follow­ing are reac­tions from the plaintiffs and their attor­neys.

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