The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for April 24, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
April 22nd, the U.S. Supreme Court declined a 2020 Texas case testing whether the state’s no-excuse mail-in voting law for seniors discriminated against younger voters.
Texas offers mail-in absentee voting to all seniors 65 and older, as do eight other states. For anyone else in Texas, you must be sick or disabled; expecting to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day; absent from the county during early voting or election day; or legally confined but otherwise eligible.
A group of Texas voters under 65 brought suit, arguing that allowing seniors to vote by mail without an excuse but offering it to other able-bodied adults amounted to age discrimination under the 26th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It reads:
“The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”
Democracy Docket reports that a federal district judge temporarily agreed with the plaintiffs, but later dismissed the case. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court, and the voters appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Monday, the court declined to hear the case, leaving Texas voters to continue the fight for equal access to mail-in ballots.
We have more on Texas mail-in ballot rules at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
State of Connecticut Legislative Research: States Which Allow Absentee Without an Excuse for Seniors Based on Age
VoteTexas.Gov – Voting by Mail
Democracy Docket – US Supreme Court Will Not Review Texas’ Age-Based Mail-In Voting Restrictions
U.S. Supreme Court via Democracy Docket – Brief by Plaintiffs
U.S. Supreme Court via Democracy Docket – Brief by State of Texas
Op-Ed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – Mail-In Ballots: A Threat to Democracy
Bipartisan Policy Center – Mail Voting is Safe and Secure
Center for Public Integrity – In Texas, polling place closures, absentee ballot rules make it harder to vote
Groups Taking Action:
National Vote at Home Institute, League of Women Voters TX, Disability Rights Texas, ACLU of Texas
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