Protect Democracy Files Brief Supporting the Rights of Texas Voters to Be Free From Unlawful Intimidation

Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of our democracy. But if voters aren’t provided with safe voting options during the COVID-19 pandemic, then elections cannot be free or fair. Eligible voters should not have to choose between their health and their fundamental right to vote.

That’s why the Texas Democratic Party sued the Governor of Texas and several other Texas officials. In a lawsuit brought in federal district court, the plaintiffs claimed that Texas officials violated the U.S. Constitution and federal laws protecting the right to vote by failing to implement COVID-19 safeguards for the state’s primary and general elections. They also claimed that the Texas Attorney General violated federal voter intimidation law by threatening to prosecute citizens who opt to vote using absentee ballots to avoid risking their health by voting in person.

Protect Democracy filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the plaintiffs, explaining that federal laws against intimidating voters can apply to threats made by the Attorney General to arrest and prosecute voters for casting absentee ballots. When voters are intimidated in this way, it threatens the integrity of our electoral process and strikes at the very heart of our democracy. Protect Democracy is steadfast in our determination to fight voter intimidation in Texas or anywhere else it may arise.

For a PDF of the brief, click here