Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) suspended provisions of Texas’ Election Code Wednesday to allow local governments to postpone their May 2 elections until November 3.
Suspending provisions of the Texas Election Code to allow political subdivisions to postpone their 2020 local elections.
This means local governments now have the ability to postpone their May 2, 2020 elections until November 3, 2020. https://t.co/VEvUhFxPXT pic.twitter.com/ZbrL6z1M0i
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) March 18, 2020
He said in a statement that he “strongly encourages” local governments to take advantage of the allowance.
Secretary of State Ruth Hughs released corresponding guidance for local governments on the logistics of moving back the elections.
Texas already conducted its Democratic presidential primary on March 3, which was won by former Vice President Joe Biden.
The state has over 70 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and the Texas Capitol has already been shuttered.
With the general election date being November 3rd? More GOP ratfuckery.
This has got to stop.
There are a number of runoffs from both party primaries set for May. Those will have to be resolved before the general.
For example, MJ Hegar and Royce West are in a runoff to see which of them will be the Dem to take on John Cornyn.
What’s wrong with scrambling a vote-by-mail system over the next few weeks? Oh, right, it’s harder to deny blah* people if you can’t intimidate them in person.
*Callback to 2012 Rick Santorum, a quainter time.
This will likely be the approach in my county. Abbott is leaving it to the counties, and, as Beto kept telling us, there are 254 in the state.
It’ll be a rodeo.