HOUSTON — Registered voters in Texas who want to vote by mail in the current election must ensure their county election’s office receives their application by Friday.
Voters must first decide if they qualify. In Texas, those are registered voters 65 and older, sick or disabled, out of the county during all of early voting and Election Day, or in jail but otherwise eligible.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled lack of immunity to COVID-19 can be a factor in declaring disability but cannot be the only factor.
Texas is one of five states where voters cannot use fear of COVID-19 as an excuse.
“The clerk is not responsible for determining your disability, you are,” said Bob Stein, KHOU political analyst, during an October 7 interview. “Now you’re liable under the law for making false presentations, but the court didn’t say clearly what an underlying disability was.”
No matter where a voter is registered in Texas, they can go to the Secretary of State Office’s elections page, VoteTexas.org. They’ll find a mail ballot application they can print out, fill out, sign, then mail to their local elections office.
To ensure that the application meets the Friday, October 23 deadline, voters can also fax or email a scanned copy of their signed, completed application.
However, if voters fax or email their applications, they must then mail the original, hard copy to the elections office. That must be received no later than the fourth business day after it was originally submitted.
VoteTexas.gov also lists mailing addresses, fax numbers, and email addresses for county elections offices statewide.
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