The Vote And Voting Problems, Pre-Election Day 2020

On Monday afternoon, a federal district court judge in Texas dismissed an effort by Republicans in the state to throw out about 127,000 ballots in Harris County cast via drive-through voting. The judge, Andrew Hanen, ruled that the group of activists and candidates who brought the case don’t have standing to sue. But the Republican-appointed judge also seemed irritated by the fact that they waited so long to bring the complaint before the court, asking the plaintiffs, “Why am I just getting this case?” He noted, too, that even if the plaintiffs had cleared the bar for standing, he still wouldn’t have granted the injunction for ballots already cast, although he did say that he would block Harris County from offering drive-through voting on Election Day. (Again, this is all hypothetical since he ruled that the plaintiffs don’t have standing.)

Hanen did order the county to maintain all drive-through voting records and data in case his ruling is reversed by a higher court — so it’s possible we haven’t heard the last of this. But the Texas Supreme Court rejected a similar case from the same plaintiffs yesterday. Now that Hanen, who’s known as an especially conservative judge, also ruled against the GOP plaintiffs, things are not looking good for this election saga.