Status: 05.11.2021 3:53 a.m.
The US Department of Justice has sued the state of Texas over controversial electoral reform. The focus is on regulations relating to postal voting and other provisions that the Ministry of Justice classifies as violations of civil rights.
The US Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas over controversial electoral law changes it has passed there. With the corresponding law, the possibility of voting for eligible voters will be restricted in several ways, argued the ministry in the lawsuit. Certain regulations in it disenfranchised individual groups of voters, such as the elderly, people with disabilities or Americans who lived in another country.
Among other things, the law in Texas is intended to expand the power of partisan election observers and prohibit certain voting methods – such as voting in drive-in polling stations, i.e. from the car. For example, it should also be prohibited that official bodies send unsolicited applications for a postal vote to eligible voters. Certain other requirements for postal voting as well as the use of auxiliary staff are also to be changed.
Nationwide dispute over the right to vote
The parliament in Texas passed the electoral law changes at the end of August. The state’s Republican governor Greg Abbott signed the bill in early September. It should come into force in December. Abbott and other Republicans argued that the law made fraud difficult. The Democrats accuse the Republicans, however, of restricting the right to vote with the changes.
In the USA, the right to vote, which is largely shaped by the states, is extremely competitive. Several republican-ruled states have already passed regulations or are pursuing regulations that critics believe would make voting more difficult.
When the barriers to voting are higher, minority groups tend to stay at home in the US – and these groups are often more likely to vote for Democrats. Republicans, on the other hand, argue that their reforms are only about making electoral fraud more difficult. Election fraud is very rare in the USA and can sometimes be punished with long prison sentences.