Governor Abbott Issues Proclamation Requiring Only One Ballot Drop Off Location

AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott Thursday issued a proclamation enhancing ballot security protocols for the in-person delivery of marked mail ballots for the November 3rd Election.

Under this proclamation, beginning on October 2, 2020, mail ballots that are delivered in person by voters who are eligible to vote by mail must be delivered to a single early voting clerk’s office location as publicly designated by a county’s early voting clerk.

The proclamation also requires early voting clerks to allow poll watchers to observe any activity conducted at the early voting clerk’s office location related to the in-person delivery of a marked mail ballot.

This proclamation amends a July 27th proclamation that extended the period in which marked mail-in ballots may be delivered in person.

“The State of Texas has a duty to voters to maintain the integrity of our elections,” said Governor Abbott. “As we work to preserve Texans’ ability to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must take extra care to strengthen ballot security protocols throughout the state. These enhanced security protocols will ensure greater transparency and will help stop attempts at illegal voting.”

View the Governor’s proclamation.

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21 Comments

  1. “Governor Abbott Issues Proclamation Enhancing Ballot Security” You have GOT to be kidding. This is how you read this move? Really?

    Your bias towards suppressing the vote in Texas is showing…this has NOTHING to do with ballot security and everything to do with making it harder for people to vote, especially in our big cities. This year, with Covid looming over our ability to vote without risking our health, we need to make distance voting easier, not more difficult.

    Abbott is making national news for his sudden proclamation, again embarrassing Texas. And Texas Covid cases are rising worse than ANY OTHER STATE, in the wake of Abbott’s recent opening of Texas restaurants, plus allowing bars to masquerade as restaurants in order to stay open.

    This newsletter is not journalism, but propaganda.

    1. Hello Dahlia,

      Governor Abbott’s proclamation adheres to state election laws.

      The Texas Election Code states “The voter may deliver a marked ballot in person to the early voting clerk’s office only while the polls are open on election day. A voter who delivers a marked ballot in person must present an acceptable form of identification described by Section 63.0101.”

      The way we are reading the code does not state “at any voting clerks office,” it states “THE early voting clerks office ONLY WHILE THE POLLS ARE OPEN ON ELECTION DAY.”

      According to the Texas Secretary of State, Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson is the Early Voting Clerk.

      The Elections Administrator, or Early Voting Clerk of any county, is not an elected position and thus must remain BiPartisan. I apologize for the title. It was not intended to be published as it was, but technical issues occurred.

      While Texas’s overall case numbers are going up, the active cases are dropping. Since the state has started utilizing antigen and antibody tests, the new positives do not necessarily mean that the cases are active. Antigen and Antibody test positives merely means they have had COVID at some point and require further testing to determine whether they are active cases.

      1. There is no reason these drop-off locations could not be made secure, and well-staffed, by law enforcement officers, if necessary.

        This is a blatant attempt to reduce the ability of all Texans to cast their ballots safely, and remotely, and is part of a nationwide effort by the Trump regime to suppress the vote, especially in our larger, more Democatic-leaning cities.

        Houston had acquired locations, staffed them and advertised their existence for weeks, and in one fell swoop Abbott has set himself up as the sole arbiter of Texas election law interpretation for this upcoming election.

        You defend Abbott all you want, you always do, but he has put Texas at further risk of mass infections by continuing to open up Texas, and as of today, Texas is #1 in new covid cases, nationwide. Proud?

        I wish our leaders in Texas would lead us away from this pandemic, not further into it.

  2. And inexplicably, you STILL refuse to list “wear a face covering when out in public” among your list of ways to protect yourself and others against Covid.

    I mean, really, how is this working out for those maskless denizens of The West Wing?

    1. Jordan “Dahlia” Buckley !!
      This is the ICU2 Unit
      Oye lo Mesías engañoso, ….. ¡sal con las manos en alto!
      (oh you treacherous messiah, come out with your hands up!)

      As to your question precious one, I would wager it is working out much better for them than it is for the masked denizens of the Psychiatric Wing.

  3. Why don’t you reprint THIS article, or write one of your own (without your own opinions on what a prince Greg Abbott is) and give your readers some variety of viewpoints. Texans are not aligned behind Abbott regarding his Covid response, nor his approach to how Texans can vote, and I wish you would stop acting like his cheerleaders.

    Greg Abbott is not leading Texas in a good direction, and Texans are smart enough to know this.

  4. “In a last-minute move that voting rights groups and Democratic officials decried as a desperate and “blatant voter suppression tactic,” the Republican governor of Texas on Thursday issued a proclamation ordering that absentee ballot drop-off locations be limited to one per county in the massive state”

    “Gov. Greg Abbott’s order—which comes just a month before the November election and is likely to face a flood of legal challenges—would have the largest impact on Democratic counties that have established multiple drop-off sites in an effort to make voting as safe and convenient as possible.”

    “While Abbott portrayed his unilateral move to shutter voting sites as an attempt to “maintain the integrity of our elections” and shield the process from virtually non-existent fraud, rights organizations said the proclamation is an obvious ploy to suppress turnout given the timing of the order and the disproportionate impact it could have on voters of color and people with disabilities.

    “It raises a real concern that people are going to have just one more barrier to successfully submitting their ballot,” Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “And it opens the door to voter intimidation.”

    Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said late Thursday that “this has President Trump written all over it.”

    This is how a lot of Texas voters see this voter suppression “proclamation” by Abbott. This is a last-minute ploy by a desperate Texas Republican Party to try and shave off votes unlikely to go to them.

    1. Thanks, Dahlia for bringing the lawsuit to our attention. We had not been informed on it. We were able to publish on it to ensure that both sides were represented.

    2. Hey there Simone Dahlia ( or however you identify yourself )

      After reading the cut-and-paste article which you reprinted to our attention, above, and thereafter arriving at your (usual) accusations dripping with racial prejudice in lieu of facts, you ever so unoriginally reprint another person’s story, and now accuse the staff of this online journal (who so nicely allows both of us to post here) “Why don’t you reprint THIS article, or write one of your own…”

      Dunno darling—but you sound kinda like John Wayne Gacy preaching to a boy scout.

      1. The staff had deleted the link for the article I referenced, but then reprinted the article in its entirety, in another section of the newsletter.

    3. Dahlia… You really need to separate the issues. The topic is on election security. I, personally, firmly believe that it is in response to Houston’s tinkering and the fools in Gregg County. However, you couldn’t keep it on topic. Instead bringing COVID and Trump into the mix. You’re borderline calling this paper racist.

      Seriously chill. There could be a logical against Abbott’s order. However, your attacks ain’t cutting it. Calm down and focus.

      1. Covid and voter suppression are linked by Abbott having made disastrous decisions re: both. His actions threaten to make Texas less safe and less representative.

        We are ill-served by a Governor toadying to Trump.

        1. Ms. Simone,

          The Biden campaign has stopped ALL negative ads due to the President of the United States contracting COVID. I am old enough to remember when people respected the Office of the President of the United States. I will not allow haters to denigrate the office because you do not like the occupant.

          Consider this to serve as notice that if you choose to envoke hate against the office or the office’s current occupant of the White House, I have informed all staff to delete that portion of all comments. The haters will have plenty of time to continue the rhetoric when the President of the United States’ health is in better condition.

          Additionally, you are insinuating that we are a racist publication. I would appreciate it if you would check yourself and your rhetoric as I will not stand for you to speak to our staff in this way or throw around accusations that have no evidence and are full of hate. Corridor News is not a social media outlet, and I will not allow comments full of disdain and disrespect as yours, whether it’s directed at other readers or my staff.

          If you have an issue with the Governor of Texas and the President of the United States, I would suggest you take it up with them and not my staff.

          If you would like to have a conversation concerning our staff or our policies, I am always available to our readers and can be reached by email at Melissa@SMCorridorNews.com.

          Most Cordially,
          Melissa Jewett

          1. I just carefully re-read all my posts, and you are woefully reading too much into my comments.

            I said nothing negative about Trump, or The Presidency, and in no way accused you or your staff of racism.

            The article I referenced, and that you yourself reprinted in this newsletter, did indeed suggest that Texas voters of color might be impacted more directly by Abbott’s actions, but I did not. And I put quotation marks around those comments, although you edited out the source link.

            No need to worry, I get your drift, you do not want my opinions, and I shall not bother you with them anymore.

  5. Dahlia the ….you don’t see things as THEY are, –you see things as YOU woefully are.

    Same for me sweetheart—I don’t see you as YOU are, I see you as yet another person unwittingly liberated, driven and nourished by the media for purposes diverting attention from the collapsing economy and the unprecedented human catastrophe which will follow the 2020 election. The plan requires public attention shifted to divisive racial issues which put working people at each other’s throats, in order to conceal the class war and impoverishment accomplished by the elite under pretext of a fake social justice movement.

  6. The Hill: Texas AG top aides accuse him of bribery, abuse of office | TheHill.

    Paxton is in trouble…again. I wonder if your paper will spend as much time defending him this time as last.

    1. Hey Jordan Buckley . . . . .AKA Dahlia “Dada” Simone:

      I wonder if you will spend as much time defending yourself this time as last, prior to
      being warned again. You apparently cannot write one original thought. Your happiness
      consists of hanging around publications opposed to your own political beliefs and recycling
      accusations against people YOU do not like, including anyone who may not appreciate your
      self-appointed dual role as provocateur and messianic know-it-all.

      Is it that time of the month, dear? Jordan, we can understand, that is, if you can just admit it.

  7. “Is it that time of the month, dear? Jordan, we can understand, that is, if you can just admit it.”

    This is some rich, tacky, sexist tripe, Mr.” Kreemona.”

    Sadly, I am not your intended victim, but a real, live female, who is actually a bit offended that you would go “there” so fast, aimed, at a man, which is all the more curious, but I guess men find that “funny,” to accuse a man of being woman who is menstruating, therefore not in her/his right mind? Is that the joke?

    You have no idea who you are actually talking to/about.

    I don’t even know who this Jordan Buckley person is. And he would surely be amused to be accused of being me.

    Barking up the wrong tree…is just making noise.

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