ELECTION INTEGRITYTexas’ Mail-in Voting Rules Pushed Voters to Cast Ballots in Person — or Not Vote at All, Study Finds
New research from the Brennan Center for Justice suggests that 2021 ID requirements in a recent overhaul of Texas election laws could explain some of the drop in mail voting.
Some county election officials across Texas say the number of people voting by mail has dropped since 2020, but they’re not sure why.
New research suggests that the recent overhaul of state election laws could explain some of the drop.
A study from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School looked at Texas voters whose mail ballots or applications to vote by mail were rejected in the 2022 primary, after the state enacted new identification requirements for mail ballots, among other changes. Many of those voters, the study found, appear to have switched to other voting methods or, in some cases, stopped voting.
The study found that 30,000 voters in that primary — or 1 out of 7 voters who started the process to vote by mail — had either their application or ballot rejected, and that “roughly 90% of these individuals did not find another way to participate in the 2022 primary.”
The authors said their findings show the potentially lasting effects of restrictive voting policies on even the most engaged voters.
About 85% of voters whose applications or ballots were rejected had voted in general elections in 2016, 2018, and 2020, said co-author Kevin Morris, a senior research fellow and voting policy scholar with the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program.
“This is a group of people that are super highly engaged in the political process,” Morris told Votebeat. “They have a long history and habit of voting, so to see these effects among them is a big deal.”
The peer-reviewed study, co-authored with political scientists from Barnard College and Tennessee State University, is set to be published later this year in the Journal of Politics and was shared with Votebeat.
After Senate Bill 1, More Rejections, Less Participation
Texas has long had strict limits on voting by mail, allowing it only for certain groups of people, including voters age 65 and up and people with disabilities. Voters who are eligible must apply to use mail ballots each year. If their application is accepted for a primary election, they’ll automatically get a mail ballot for that year’s general election as well. If the application is rejected, they have to reapply.
