Lawsuit says Texas’ In-Person Voting Will Disenfranchise Blacks, Latinos

A new lawsuit in Texas says the votes of Blacks and Latinos will be at risk in the November election.

Opening a new front in the legal wars over voting during the coronavirus pandemic, two civil rights organizations and two Texas voters argue that the state’s rules for in-person voting won’t work this year and are asking a federal judge to require substantial changes.

In a wide-ranging federal lawsuit filed Thursday in San Antonio, Mi Familia Vota, the Texas NAACP and the voters claim the state’s current polling place procedures — including rules for early voting, the likelihood of long lines and Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to not require voters to wear masks — place an unconstitutional burden on voters while the virus remains in circulation.

That burden will be particularly high for Black and Latino voters whose communities have been disproportionately affected by the virus, the lawsuit argues.

“The Texas 2020 elections will put voters at risk of transmitting or being infected with the coronavirus. But the risk will not be shared equally,” the lawsuit reads. “Some voters will be able to vote easily by mail. Others will not. Some will have easy access to early voting locations. Others will not.

For the rest of this Texas Tribune story log on to: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/17/texas-voting-coronavirus-lawsuit/