A federal judge has blocked enforcement of a state law criminalizing paid vote harvesting, a business that often crosses into illegal influence and fraud.
On Saturday, Judge Xavier Rodriguez issued an order that “IMMEDIATELY AND PERMANENTLY ENJOINED” Attorney General Ken Paxton, Secretary of State Jane Nelson, and multiple county district attorneys from “implementing, enforcing, or giving any effect to” the vote harvesting ban.
Paxton responded Monday that his office will “immediately” move to block the ruling.
Lawmakers passed the ban in 2021 as part of a comprehensive election integrity measure known as Senate Bill 1.
The enjoined section of the law established three third-degree felonies for participating in a paid vote harvesting scheme.
Judge Rodriguez determined that the statute was overly vague and created an unconstitutional restriction on the free speech of advocacy groups that conduct in-person voter outreach and engagement activities.
The law defines “vote harvesting services” as in-person interaction with voters “in the physical presence of an official ballot or a ballot voted by mail” that is “intended to deliver votes for a specific candidate or measure.”
Plaintiffs in the case referred to the law as a “canvassing restriction.”
The plaintiffs include several nominally “non-partisan” advocacy groups on the political left that pay canvassers who provide “voter assistance” at voters’ homes, at the polls, or during “get out the vote” events:
— Texas branch of the League of Women Voters, an organization that routinely challenges election integrity laws;
— LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), which runs “voter assistance” programs for elderly, illiterate, and non-English speaking Texans;
— Texas AFT, a “labor union” for teachers;
— LUPE (La Union Del Pueblo Entero), a group that “organizes… colonia residents” and assists voters with their mail-in ballots and at the polls; and
— OCA-Houston, a “social justice” advocacy group for Asian Americans.
During a weeks-long bench trial last September and October, plaintiffs argued that there was “widespread confusion” about how to interpret the terms “compensation or other benefit” and “physical presence” of a mail ballot.
“Plaintiffs and their members cannot determine from the text of TEC § 276.015 whether the Canvassing Restriction prohibits their organizations’ routine voter engagement activities,” wrote Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also concluded that the threat of prosecution under the vote harvesting ban had a chilling effect on the plaintiffs’ protected speech.
Jonathan White, former chief of the AG’s Election Integrity Division, testified during the trial that vote harvesting schemes are among the most common election-related complaints and that paid canvassers offering mail ballot assistance can be a subterfuge for voter fraud.
Such schemes have been the target of multiple prosecutions.
“I will immediately move to block this unacceptable ruling so Texas can continue to defend its elections from bad actors seeking to undermine the ballot box,” Paxton wrote in a statement issued Monday. “A ruling—weeks prior to an election—preventing my office from investigating potential election violations is deeply troubling and risks undermining public trust in our political process.”
Despite the judge’s order, it’s still illegal to participate in a fraudulent vote harvesting scheme or to influence a voter in the presence of their ballot or during the voting process.
It’s also a crime to provide “unlawful assistance” by helping a voter who is not eligible for or does not request assistance, suggesting how a voter should vote, or preparing a voter’s ballot in a way other than the way the voter directs or without direction from the voter.
Last year, Judge Rodriguez blocked another provision of SB 1, ruling that Texas election officials cannot reject mail-in ballots with wrong or missing identification numbers.
A challenge to the entire portion of the law requiring a voter identification number on mail-in ballots is still under review by Rodriguez.
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