A federal judge in Texas ruled Monday against Republicans that had requested an emergency hearing, pushing to toss out more than 100,000 drive-thru ballots in Harris County — a Democratic stronghold.
Harris County is the largest in Texas and the third-most populated county nationally.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, a Bush appointee, said the challengers lacked standing — or sufficient injury — to bring their action.
His move allows the drive-thru votes to count.
Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, cheered the ruling but said Republicans shouldn’t have been allowed to file the challenge in the first place.
“Texans who lawfully voted at drive-thru locations should have never had to fear that their votes wouldn’t be counted and their voices wouldn’t be heard,” he said. “This lawsuit was shameful and it should have never seen the light of day.”
The ballots at issue in the legal battle were cast through drive-in voting, which local officials permitted due to the coronavirus pandemic, though not explicitly allowed under state law.
The legal challenge was brought Friday by Steven Hotze, a registered voter in Harris County, Republican state Rep. Steve Toth and Wendell Champion and Sharon Hemphill, who are both on the ballot running as Republicans.
They had argued the drive-thru votes violated state and federal law, which only allows the curbside voting for the sick and disabled, and they want all the ballots disqualified.
The legal wrangling plays out as Democrats eye a chance to put Texas in their column for the first time since Jimmy Carter won the White House.
Monday’s hearing came after the Texas Supreme Court denied the petition to toss the ballots Sunday.
The conference phone line was closed to the press because it was overloaded, but a few local reporters were allowed inside the courtroom.
It is the latest in a series of legal battles filed in the Lone Star State over mail-in ballots and other election issues. Texas is one of only a handful of states this year requiring a reason to obtain an absentee ballot.
There have been lawsuits challenging signature requirements in the state for absentee ballots as well as the drop-off locations.
In order to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, permitted six extra days of early voting to help keep large crowds from forming at the polls.
Texas has seen the number of early ballots cast this year already outpacing all of the votes in 2016.
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