A federal appeals court has ruled for Texas in three lawsuits challenging the state's election laws, including mail-in ballot provisions and the elimination of straight-ticket voting.
In a series of 2-1 rulings Wednesday evening, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lawsuits by civil rights groups, political organizations and voters had targeted the wrong state agency — the Texas secretary of state's office — when they sought to overturn a string of voting laws and practices.
Because the secretary of state is not in charge of enforcing the challenged laws, the agency is protected by sovereign immunity in all three lawsuits, said the opinions written by Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan and joined by Judge Don Willett.
Judge Patrick Higginbotham dissented in all three cases, writing that he believed the majority was splitting hairs by narrowly interpreting which state officers enforce election laws.
The secretary of state is the chief election officer of Texas who is charged by law with protecting the voting rights of Texans "from abuse by the authorities administering the state’s electoral processes,” Higginbotham wrote.
"The allegation in these cases is that the Secretary is failing in that duty. This charge should satisfy our ... inquiry," he said.
All three judges were appointed by Republicans — Duncan and Willett by President Donald Trump and Higginbotham by President Ronald Reagan.
The three lawsuits ruled on Wednesday were:
• A challenge by the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans and two national Democratic organizations sought to overturn a 2017 law that ended straight-ticket voting, also known as one-punch voting because it lets voters select all candidates of a particular political party in one step.
A state district judge barred enforcement of the law, ruling in September 2020 that the change unconstitutionally burdened the right to vote.
The 5th Circuit Court blocked enforcement of the injunction until the appeal was decided, ending straight-ticket voting for the 2020 presidential election and leading to Wednesday's ruling that formally
formally vacated the injunction.
• A lawsuit by the
NAACP of Texas, Voto Latino and the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans sought to block mail-in ballot regulations that require voters to pay for postage and mandate that ballots be postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day and received by 5 p.m. on the next day.
The lawsuit also challenged signature-matching requirements for mailed ballots and a law that makes it a crime to possess another voter's mail ballot.
Lawyers for Texas moved to dismiss the lawsuit and the trial judge declined, leading state officials to appeal.
• A lawsuit by groups including the League of Women Voters of Texas and the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities challenged the process of verifying mail-in ballots by ensuring that the voter's signature on the outside envelope matches the signature on the vote-by-mail application.
A trial judge granted a detailed injunction limiting the practice in September 2020, but again the 5th Circuit Court stepped in to halt the injunction until the appeal was decided.
Wednesday's ruling vacated the injunction.
In the three rulings, the majority said the lawsuits mistakenly targeted the secretary of state's office when county election officials are in charge of enforcing the challenged election law provisions.
Duncan also rejected arguments that the agency could be sued under state laws charging the secretary of state with protecting voting rights from abuse. "Such general duties under the Texas Election Code fail to make the Secretary the enforcer of specific election code provisions," he wrote.
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