Fifth Circuit Upholds Single Ballot Drop Off Box for Houston

The Fifth Circuit has upheld Texas Governor Greg Abbott's order limiting ballot drop off boxes to a single box per county.  That is one box for the entire 2.3 million people of Houston, Harris County Texas.  Yet because early voting is an expansion of the right to vote beyond a single election day the limitation of drop off boxes to a single location in each of the hundreds of Texas counties - many sparsely populated, unlike Houston, the nation's fourth largest city. - GWC
Texas United League of Latin American Citizens
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals:

"To be sure, the proclamation requires a single designated drop-off location per county during the expanded forty-day period. But that represents merely a partial refinement of the bounds of a still-existing expansion of absentee voting opportunities. In a related context, we have recently explained that to “abridg[e]” the right to vote means to “place a barrier or prerequisite to voting, or otherwise make it more difficult to vote.” Texas Democratic Party v. Abbott, --- F.3d ---, 2020 WL 5422917, at *15 (5th Cir. Sept. 10, 2020)(TDP II). By contrast, “a law that makes it easier for others to vote does not abridge any person’s right to vote.” Id. The July 27 and October 1 Proclamations— which must be read together to make sense—are beyond any doubt measures that “make[] it easier” for eligible Texans to vote absentee. Id. How this expansion of voting opportunities burdens anyone’s right to vote is a mystery."