The injunction that prevented Attorney General Greg Abbott from pursuing enforcement of a new provision that criminalized possessing the absentee ballot of a non-relative has been overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A three-member panel unanimously struck down a federal injunction issued Tuesday that halted Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott from prosecuting individuals who possess another person's ballot or who mail it without identifying themselves. Democrats had complained that minorities, the elderly and the disabled were unfairly being targeted by the prosecutions.Abbott's office hailed the decision, coming just days before Tuesday's general election, but Democrats immediately filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The "scope of disenfranchisement and interference with protected political activities" under the voter fraud law and "fraudulent practices that allegedly justify" it remain speculative, wrote Judge James Dennis, appointed by former President Clinton and is the only Democrat on the panel.
Dennis, however, said that while the voter fraud law appears to be an "overly broad criminalization of conduct intended to assist disabled voters," unfair application of the law only can be proved by allowing the election to proceed.