The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal has rejected a bid from Texas Republicans to block drive-through voting in Harris County, Texas.
"It is ordered that appellants' motion for injunctive relief to issue a preliminary injunction banning drive-thru voting on Election Day, November 3, 2020, is denied,” the three-judge panel wrote in an order. No further explanation was supplied.
The decision marks a loss for Republicans in Texas, who had sought to challenge the legality of votes cast at drive-through voting sites in the Houston area. US District Court Judge Andrew Hanen dismissed the suit on Monday finding that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to file suit, and the Texas Supreme Court blocked a similar challenge on Sunday.
Hanen wrote in his order that Texas Election Code permits early voting via drive-through sites, but does not authorise movable structures – such as the tents used as part of drive-through voting – as polling places on Election Day itself.
Harris County, which includes Houston and the surrounding area, is the third-most populous county in the US. Almost 9% of the ballots cast in Harris County in the election so far have come from drive-through voting sites, the county said on Saturday, totalling some 127,000 votes in all.
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Several big law firms have become involved in the case, representing amicus parties and intervenors attempting to protect the ballots from being tossed. Attorneys from Dechert, Reed Smith, Haynes and Boone and Perkins Coie are representing organisations in opposition to the suit.
