Voter outreach groups say SB1's ban on paid ballot help has them turning away older and disabled Texans

With Election Day on Tuesday, some Texas groups that once sat down with voters to walk them through a mail ballot say they now have to step away when asked, because of the 2021 election law known as Senate Bill 1.

The law made it a crime to be paid for helping a voter fill out a ballot, Votebeat and The Texas Tribune reported Friday. Breaking it is a felony punishable by as long as a decade behind bars and a fine as high as $10,000.

Courts have read "compensation" so broadly that even meals, T-shirts or college credit given to volunteers could count, according to Zachary Dolling, the Texas Civil Rights Project's litigation director, whose group helps organizations build training that complies with the law.

How outreach has changed

La Union del Pueblo Entero, a Rio Grande Valley nonprofit that says it helps about 30,000 people a year, used to send workers door to door to help voters.

Executive director Tania Chavez Camacho said that when someone at one of its town halls brings out a mail ballot and wants help, staff now ask the voter to step out so no paid employee is close to it, and canvassers are trained to say no and walk away. "We literally have to turn them away," she said.

The group now holds sessions that project sample ballots and applications on a screen. Chavez Camacho said that does little for someone who cannot read.

Asian Texans for Justice, which works in North Texas as well as San Antonio, Houston and Austin, has switched from one-on-one help to checklists. Executive director Nabila Mansoor said older voters face small print, pages of instructions and ID requirements on their applications, and that a single mistake can send them back to the start.

People who help voters at the polls also must now sign an oath stating the voter qualifies for assistance and describing their relationship to the voter. Chavez Camacho said that has made volunteers wary.

The law's backers and the courts

Republicans who passed SB1 said it would raise public trust and confidence in elections, the Tribune reported. Democrats argued it would fall hardest on voters of color and voters with disabilities, and walked out twice and mounted a 15-hour filibuster in the Senate before it passed.

A federal appeals court later upheld key parts of the law, including the limits on voter assistance, after lawsuits from groups including LUPE and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill with support from both parties that would have let voters who are blind or paralyzed request an electronic ballot and mark it on a computer.

Texas sets strict limits on who may vote by mail, though voters over 65 qualify, the Tribune noted.

Sources

The Texas Tribune