Real Clear Politics No Toss Up Map with Biden Beating Trump 353-185 in Electoral College

High Court with Vacancy Could Make the Final Call
on Texas Straight Ticket Vote after Court Turnabout

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
September 25, 2020

Texas Democrats scored a fragile victory in the judiciary on Friday when a federal judge in Laredo threw up a roadblock to the state's new prohibition on straight ticket voting in a case that could be on a fast track to a short-handed U.S. Supreme Court.

With less than three weeks to go before early voting gets under way across the state, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo effectively reversed herself when she ruled late this afternoon that the elimination of the straight party option on ballots in Texas would be detrimental to the public health and safety during the coronavirus crisis.

Marmolejo said the change in election law that the Legislature approved in 2017 would culminate in long lines at the polls that make voters more vulnerable to being exposed to COVID-19. The Democrats' congressional and senatorial campaign committees filed an expanded challenge of the straight ticket ban with a nonprofit group called Texas Alliance for Retired Americans as a new co-plaintiff.

Marmolejo had spurned the Democrats initially in June when she rejected the push to revive straight party voting in Texas as a result of a variety of problems she had with the case. The jurist agreed that the option's removal from the ballot would discriminate against African-American and Hispanic voters who live in districts where lines at the polls are generally longest.

The district judge's decision could be the difference between winning and losing for President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden and the down-ballot contenders who will be listed on the ballot below them both. The Democrats have a good chance to reclaim the Texas House majority in the general election in November when they have a shot to carry the state in the White House competition for the first time in 44 years.

But the celebration will be abbreviated with the state likely to challenge the bordertown judge's finding in a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that will probably vote to reinstate the law. That could set the stage for a final test before the nation's highest court, which currently has an opening in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death last week. The Supreme Court members who'd been appointed by Republicans would have the votes to uphold the appellate court barring a surprise shift.

Trump wants to have a replacement nominee confirmed by the U.S. Senate before the election that's only 38 days away. But the Texas couldn't wait with early voting set to begin here on October 13 after being extended by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in June for the same basic reasons that the heart of the Democrats' fight to resurrect the straight ticket alternative.

The case appears to have the potential to throw the Texas election into chaos in light of its timing and the possibility of a court-ordered ballot recall.

Texas is one of 10 states that have abolished straight ticking voting in the past 10 years. The law that erased the STV option didn't take effect until after the election in 2018 when Democrats flipped 12 Texas House districts in major suburban areas. The Democrats have a strong shot at a majority in the House with a net gain of at least nine seats.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have been pouring substantial sums of money into the Texas battleground with a chance to pick up a half dozen U.S. House seats and the post that U.S. Senator John Cornyn is seeking again in a bout with Democrat MJ Hegar.