Texas Tribune: “In a letter dated Aug. 27, Keith Ingram, director of elections for the Texas secretary of state, told Harris County to ‘immediately halt; its plans to send every registered voter in the county an application for a mail-in ballot for the general election. Ingram demanded the county drop its plan by Monday to avoid legal action by the Texas attorney general.”
Sending out the applications ‘would be contrary to our office’s guidance on this issue and an abuse of voters’ rights under Texas Election Code Section 31.005,’ Ingram wrote, citing a provision of state law that gives the secretary of state’s office power to take such action to ‘protect the voting rights’ of Texans from ‘abuse’ by local officials responsible for administering elections. Earlier this week, the Harris County Clerk’s office announced it would be sending every registered voter an application for a mail-in ballot for the general election. With more than 2 million residents on the voter rolls, the move to proactively send out applications that voters must otherwise request or find online put Harris in line with an initiative that several states have carried out for primary elections during the coronavirus pandemic.