Texas governor limits election drop boxes to one per county in sprawling state

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By Ashley Killough, Ed Lavandera and Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Updated 10:32 PM ET, Thu October 1, 2020

(CNN) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation Thursday limiting the amount of drop-off locations for mail-in ballots to one site per county.

The move significantly affects the Democratic stronghold of Harris County, which is the state's largest county by population -- one of the most populous in the country -- and covers a massive area. It must now reduce its 12 drop-off locations down to one starting on Friday, according to Elizabeth Lewis, spokeswoman for the Harris County Clerk's Office. Travis County, which includes the reliably Democratic city of Austin, must limit its four drop-off locations to one.

Other large counties -- like Tarrant, Dallas and El Paso County -- only had one drop-off location already in place.

The Republican governor said in a statement the order was made to enhance ballot security. It also allows poll watchers to observe the in-person delivery of mail-in ballots by voters, but critics say it could severely limit access for many voters.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/politics/texas-governor-drop-off-locations-ballots/index.html

[yellowdogintexas]

1. One drop off per county has been in the Texas Election code for some time

I had a long talk with our Elections Director about it (I was begging for drop boxes) and he told me it was not allowed per the election code and sent me the reference. The original code spells out the one location part etc. The amendment 1. moved the run off 2. extended early voting for the general election and 3. allowed ballots to be taken by voters to the ELections office for the entire early voting period

When Travis and Harris set up the drop off annexes as what appear to be "branch offices" of the elections division, they were not in compliance. I think that if there had been any way our director thought we could have done it here, we would have.

In the past, ballots could only be hand delivered to the ELEctions office on Election Day. Since the proclamation, ballots can now be taken to the Elections Office from the beginning of Early Voting, during office hourse and ID presented.

Also we have an extra 5 days of early voting.

Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis counties also allow voters to vote in any open precinct on Election Day. In Tarrant that means around 300 voting locations which anyone can use. No more restricted to just one location. There are a number of non metropolitan counties which have approved this plan as well. It is awesome.