Federal appellate court rejects age discrimination argument by Texas Democrats
A federal appellate court on Thursday rejected the Texas Democratic Party’s argument that state law discriminates based on age by only allowing people 65 and older to vote by mail without an excuse
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said that giving one class of voters a benefit does not deny or abridge others’ right to vote.
“We hold that an election law abridges a person’s right to vote for the purposes of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment only if it makes voting more difficult for that person than it was before the law was enacted or enforced,” Justice Leslie H. Southwick wrote in the majority opinion of the three-justice panel that included Justices Carolyn Dineen King and Carl E. Stewart.
Stewart dissented in part from the majority opinion, saying the mail-in voting law does not treat voters equally.
“This unequal treatment is discriminatory in normal times and dangerous in the time of a global pandemic,” Stewart wrote. “Though all individuals can seemingly vote in person, those without the opportunity to vote by mail have less opportunity to participate than others.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Federal-appellate-court-rejects-age-15558476.php
