Texas’ has passed a new law that seeks to stop elections officials and candidates/politicians from actively encouraging mail-in voting, but apparently some activists and operatives – likely liberal leftist Democrats seeking to turn Texas ‘Blue’ – have decided to forge ahead in an effort to push for more widespread mail-in ballots at their discretion and for their benefit.

The contact for this media release lists a New York University (‘home’ of the Brennan Center for Justice) official email address, so it’s fair to say this is likely to be far from a Texas ‘grass roots’ endeavor, and the reportedly Soros-funded Brennan Center (see HERE) is the source of the complaint.

Voting by mail has been shown to be rife with security issues and a prime method by which leftists can manipulate vote totals.

-RBN Staff

MEDIA RELEASE (AND COPY OF COMPLAINT) FOLLOWS:

Friday, 2/11, U.S. District Court Hearing in Challenge to Texas Law Censoring Election Officials and Workers

Penalty is minimum 6 months in jail and fine up to $10,000 for talking to voters about mail ballot applications

Plaintiffs seek preliminary injunction in time for voters’ February 18 deadline to apply to vote by mail in March 1 primary

Law violates First Amendment and interferes with public officials’ performance of their duties

*** Media Advisory ***

For Planning Purposes Only
February 10, 2022

Contact: Rebecca Autrey, rebecca.autrey@nyu.edu, 202-753-5904

What: Preliminary injunction hearing in Longoria v. Paxton, lawsuit challenging Texas’s S.B. 1; makes it a crime for public officials and election officials to encourage eligible voters to apply to vote by mail

When: Friday, February 11, 2022, 9:00 a.m. CT

Where: United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, 262 West Nueva St., Courtroom H, San Antonio

Hearing will be livestreamed here

Who:

Plaintiffs:

• Isabel Longoria: Harris County Elections Administrator
• Cathy Morgan: volunteer deputy registrar in Travis and Williamson Counties

Attorneys for plaintiffs:

• Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
• Harris County Attorney’s Office
• Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Defendants:

• Warren K. Paxton, attorney general for the state of Texas
• Kim Ogg, Harris County district attorney
• Shawn Dick, Williamson County district attorney
• José Garza, Travis County district attorney

Attorneys for defendants:

• Butler Snow LLP
• Howry, Breen & Herman, LLP
• Leavitt Ervin
• Office of the Texas Attorney General
• Travis County Attorney’s Office

Presiding: Judge Xavier Rodriguez

Resources:

• Background and documents, Longoria v. Paxton
• Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction

Background

Texas law allows voting by mail in certain circumstances, including when a voter is 65 years old or older, sick, or disabled, out of the country on election day, or held in jail.

Yet Texas’s S.B. 1 – a bill containing multiple voting restrictions — has an “anti-solicitation” provision that makes it a crime for election officials and certain public officials to encourage voters to vote by mail, whether or not those voters are eligible under state law to do so.

Isabel Longoria, the highest-ranking election official in Harris County, and Cathy Morgan, a volunteer deputy registrar in Travis and Williamson Counties, filed suit to stop S.B. 1 from censoring their speech and criminalizing part of the work they need to do to fulfill their duties. The complaint [RBN NOTE: Full text posted below] argues that the law violates the First Amendment as well as blocking election officials and workers from carrying out work to help voters and alleviate confusion.

END MEDIA RELEASE

COPY OF COMPLAINT PAGE VIA BRENNAN CENTER

Longoria v. Paxton

The Brennan Center and co-counsel filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a provision of Texas’s new omnibus voter suppression law that makes it a crime for public officials and election officials to encourage eligible voters to apply to vote by mail.

Voting in Texas has never been easy. Even before the Texas Legis­lature passed S.B. 1, Texas was among the states that make it hard­est for voters to register and vote, with some of the most oner­ous voting restric­tions in the coun­try.

But on August 31, the Texas legis­lature made it even harder to vote by passing S.B. 1, an omni­bus voter suppres­sion bill. S.B. 1’s “anti-soli­cit­a­tion” provi­sion makes it a state jail felony for public offi­cials and elec­tion offi­cials to soli­cit mail ballot applic­a­tions from voters who are eligible or may be eligible to vote by mail.

On Decem­ber 10, the Bren­nan Center and the Harris County Attor­ney’s Office filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the West­ern District of Texas against Texas Attor­ney General Ken Paxton, chal­len­ging S.B. 1’s anti-soli­cit­a­tion provi­sion under the U.S. Consti­tu­tion. For more inform­a­tion about the Bren­nan Center’s lawsuit chal­len­ging other provi­sions of S.B. 1, LUPE v. Abbott, click here.

We repres­ent Harris County Elec­tions Admin­is­trator Isabel Longoria and Cathy Morgan, a volun­teer deputy regis­trar. Plaintiffs assert that S.B. 1’s anti-soli­cit­a­tion provi­sion viol­ates the First and Four­teenth Amend­ments because it crim­in­al­izes consti­tu­tion­ally protec­ted speech.

Plaintiffs are also repres­en­ted by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

On Decem­ber 27, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint naming the local district attor­neys of Harris County, Willi­am­son County, and Travis County as defend­ants in the lawsuit. And on Decem­ber 28, Plaintiffs filed a prelim­in­ary injunc­tion request­ing the court to enjoin S.B. 1’s anti-soli­cit­a­tion provi­sion no later than Febru­ary 14, 2022. Plaintiffs seek this quick relief to ensure that Texas voters can meet the dead­line of Febru­ary 18, 2022, to request a mail ballot applic­a­tion for the March 1, 2022 primary elec­tion.

Docu­ments

• Complaint (Decem­ber 10, 2021)
• Amended Complaint (Decem­ber 27, 2021)
• Motion for Prelim­in­ary Injunc­tion (Decem­ber 28, 2021)

END COMPLAINT