In a last-minute change before Americans head to the polls in November, a federal judge has struck down as unconstitutional a key anti-ballot-harvesting portion of Texas’s sweeping election reform law.
Supporters say the provision bolsters election integrity, while critics say it amounts to “voter suppression.”
In a Sept. 28 ruling, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriquez declared that Section 7.04 of Senate Bill 1 (S.B. 1), which made certain types of ballot harvesting a third-degree felony, violates the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Known as the Canvassing Restriction, the provision made it a third-degree felony for individuals to earn “compensation or other benefit” by conducting in-person interactions to assist voters in filling out or submitting mail-in ballots….