Travis County elections official slams new law in mail-in ballot rejections

AUSTIN, Texas — After airing out frustrations last week over having to reject hundreds of mail-in ballot applications because of a new requirement in the application, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir - who heads up elections operations in the county - castigated the new election law during a press conference Tuesday morning.

DeBeauvoir, who will soon leave her post after announcing in November she is not running for re-election, did not mince words when criticizing the law.

So far, Travis County has had to reject 509 of the 1,914 mail-in ballot applications - or 27 % - they have received so far. When DeBeauvoir first brought this to attention last week, that figure was 50 %. Despite this drop, she said this is still abnormally high.

"Voters are being mistreated in this circumstance," DeBeauvoir said. "My friends, this is what voter suppression looks like."

Bexar County has also reported rejecting about half of their mail-in ballot applications, while Harris County has rejected seven times more applications than usual.

Under Senate Bill 1 - which took effect last month after nearly a full year of contentious debates characterized by partisan heel-digging and Democrats in the Texas House flying out of the state in an attempt to kill the then-bill by keeping their chamber below the minimum number of members required to take action on bills - the application for a mail-in ballot now has a box asking for an identification number.

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Voters must provide one of the following: their driver's license or state identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number if they don't have any form of ID number.

During debates on the then-bill, Democrats and elections officials pointed out this could disqualify a significant portion of the voting population because many Texans used only one of these numbers when first registering to vote. If you put down your driver's license number on the application when you actually put the last four digits of your social security number when you first registered to vote, your application would be rejected.

According to the Texas secretary of state's office, as of December 20, 2021, there were around 17 million registered voters in Texas. Of those, 702,257 voters used one of these identification numbers when they registered to vote. An additional 106,911 did not have either number on file. This means 809,168 - or almost 5 % - of registered voters will be facing the predicament of having to remember which number they used - if they used one at all - when they registered to vote if they plan to apply for a mail-in ballot.

This also means several voters have already guessed wrong with so many applications rejected already.

"The voter is playing a guessing game with this. The voter is trying to remember the number they signed up with at the voter registration office 10, 20, 30 years ago. 'What number did I use for the voter registration database? Was it my driver's license number? Did I use my social security number?' Do you remember what you signed up with? I didn't. I had to go back and look it up. Voters are going to have to play the same guessing game," DeBeauvoir said.

DeBeauvoir said about half of the 500 rejections in Travis County are due to the new identification rule.

The county's offices are also having to reject voters who used old applications without the new identification number box.

"All of the old forms - which some people have stockpiled, including the League of Women Voters, campaigns, political operatives - have to be thrown away. They are no good, and a lot of people are still trying to use the old form because we've had a paper shortage, and printing of these new forms means they're scarce. They're hard to come by. Nevertheless, you have to use the new form. If somebody sends in an old form, their ballot will be rejected," DeBeauvoir said.

However, Republicans and the secretary of state's office have been on the defensive since Travis County first pointed out their issue last week.

When talking with CBS Austin last week, House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said this new identification requirement boosts election security.

"I think it's very important to make sure that ballot is as secure as possible. I don't think it's asking too much to have an identifier on there. I know what my social security number is. I know what my driver's license number is," Phelan said.

After Travis County released their statement last week when they first said they've had to reject half the mail-in ballot applications they had received, Texas Secretary of State John Scott - who helped former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania - released the following statement:

We were surprised to learn for the first time of the apparent wholesale rejection of mail ballot applications by Travis County. Our office's role to each county, including Travis County, is to be available to provide advice and assistance on implementation of Texas election law upon request. Nevertheless, Travis County made the decision to reject these mail ballot applications before contacting our office. We call on Travis County to immediately review and re-examine the mail ballot applications in question to determine whether they were processed in accordance with state law, with the goal of reinstating and minimizing any disruption to eligible voters who have properly submitted their application for ballot by mail. We anxiously await the results of their re-processing of these mail ballot applications.

We urge all county election officials to contact the Texas Secretary of State's office to seek advice and assistance on the correct method of processing mail ballot applications.

After DeBeauvoir's Tuesday press conference, the secretary of state's office released this statement:

Our office actually spoke with Travis County on Thursday evening (we reached out to them proactively) and advised them on the proper ballot by mail application process – which is why, per the Travis County Clerk’s own admission in her press conference – their rejection rate was revised from 50% down to 27% after speaking with us and receiving proper guidance. We will continue to work with Travis County and all counties to provide guidance on the procedure for processing applications for ballot by mail.

DeBeauvoir painted a different picture about her office's interactions with the secretary of state's office.

She said she had staff dedicated to reaching out to the secretary of state's office to get answers on how to fix their issue, including one day when they called the state office 33 times only to get no response.

One of the issues they're running into is the inability for voters and DeBeauvoir's own staff to access the identification number currently in the database.

"So far, we have not received instructions from the secretary of state's office to tell voters how to look up this information, and therein is the beginning of the problem for voters," DeBeauvoir said. "This is all done in cooperation with voter registration, so you have two large offices trying to coordinate together with a statewide office with a database that is, right now, blank. The statewide database that Travis County can access does not have information for its voters entered into it."

DeBeauvoir claimed just days after announcing last week she was holding the Tuesday press conference, the secretary of state's office announced they were holding a webinar for elections offices. That webinar was scheduled to start 30 minutes before the Tuesday press conference.

In the time since problems with mail-in ballot applications have surfaced, the secretary of state's office has pointed to a new online mail-in ballot application tracker.

However, DeBeauvoir said she's running into issues like this, as well.

"The information telling voters, 'Oh just look it up in our vote-by-mail new tracker database' wasn't helpful because it is blank for Travis County," DeBeauvoir said. "If the secretary of state will set up, open up, and populate their vote by mail tracker system, that will go a long way in helping voters figure out what's wrong."

However, Republicans who support the new law said this is an opportunity to learn.

Phelan said now, elections officials are more aware of the messaging they have to communicate to voters ahead of the March primary election.

"I think if anything, it's a public education - a PSA - for the counties to remind voters exactly what the new law is," Phelan said. "That's something I think the voter registrars and local elections administrators need to educate their voters when they send out those ballot by mail [applications]. Say, 'Hey, there is this provision where you have to add that identifier in there.' Again, it's not a number no one is aware of."

The new law also provides a process for voters to fix mistakes on their mail-in ballot applications.

But DeBeauvoir said this process still limits the help she can provide individual voters.

The new law bans elections officials from promoting voting by mail. However, DeBeauvoir said this particular provision is so vague, that they are having to take a broad interpretation of this rule to avoid legal issues.

"If I do anything else to promote vote by mail, I am engaging in a state jail felony. The broad interpretation of that is if I help them fill out a ballot-by-mail application, then I am promoting ballot-by-mail, and that is where we get in trouble with the law. It's too broad, too vague, and not helpful for voters, and I would like to help voters a lot more than the current interpretation of the law allows," DeBeauvoir said. "I am hamstrung. A state jail felony is nothing to thumb your nose at. You know I would have preferred to tell voters exactly what to do, but I think under the circumstances, we're going to have to rely on the community and the parties to solve this problem the legislature created."

The last day to register to vote ahead of the March 1 primary election is January 31, and the last day to send in an application to vote by mail is February 18 - though that is the deadline for the office to receive the application, not for when it is postmarked.

The following list is the only voters who are qualified to vote by mail:

• be 65 years or older;
• be sick or disabled;
• be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance;
• be expected to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day; or
• be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible

For those who cannot qualify for a mail-in ballot, DeBeauvoir said there will be safety measures in polling places - like social distancing and personal protective equipment being provided - to ensure voters can exercise their rights without having to worry about their health and safety during a pandemic.

Looking ahead, DeBeauvoir urges voters not to be discouraged by these scores of mail-in ballot application rejections.

"The best way to defeat this is to go vote," DeBeauvoir said. "The best thing to do is to fight back."

You can access a mail-in ballot application here. You can get to the ballot tracker here.