Judge: Let them cast their votes

A Jefferson County judge on Monday ordered that dozens of voters whose mail-in ballots were slated for rejection should be notified in time to vote on Tuesday.

At least 86 mail-in ballots were flagged last week for potential discrepancies in signatures between the application form and the returned ballot, elections officials said.

State District Judge Justin Sanderson issued a restraining order requiring the early voting ballot board to post the list of flagged voters on the Jefferson County elections website by close of business the Monday.

The board was also ordered to provide the court all rejected mail-in ballots “so that any of these voters who desire to have their vote counted” can vote at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Tuesday.

“The court finds there is evidence that harm is imminent to plaintiffs, and if the court does not issue the temporary restraining order, plaintiffs will be irreparably injured because the right to vote is a basic civil and politi-

ID cal right,” the order states.

A list of 86 voters whose mail-in ballots had been rejected was posted on the elections website near the end of the work day.

Elections manager Naomi Doyle did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Beaumont attorneys Mark Sparks and Cade Bernsen, who also chairs the Jefferson County Democratic Party, filed the Monday morning lawsuit on behalf of four residents named on the list, including a legally blind man and a 92-year-old woman.

Sparks said he was “grateful” Sanderson granted the “critical order,” as most of the mail-in ballots were sent by elderly residents or displaced Tropical Storm Harvey victims who may not have known of the rejection until too late.

The presiding judge must deliver written notices to voters outlining why their ballot was rejected no later than10 days after Election Day, according to a Secretary of State handbook.

County Clerk Carolyn Guidry said Friday that voters whose ballots were rejected would receive a letter notifying them of their rejected ballot but she “seriously doubt(ed)” the letter would reach voters in time.

According to Sanderson’s order, the flagged voters will receive written notice of their rejected ballot and given seven days upon notice to vote.

The Monday lawsuit names Judge Hope Wilson Weber and the Jefferson County early voting ballot board.

The board is a bipartisan group appointed by the county clerk, voter registrar, Democratic and Republican party chairs, sheriff and county judge. Two judges, representing both parties, lead the board. Members work in pairs, one Democrat and one Republican, to verify signatures.

Hope Weber, the board’s Republican presiding judge, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Sparks accused the early voting ballot board and its judge of “working in concert and conspiracy with local, unauthorized Republican activists and operatives to affect all these corrupt schemes,” according to the court document.

“Frankly, it is a sad day for Jefferson County politics,” Sparks wrote in the petition.

But Jefferson County Republican Party chairwoman Judy Nichols stressed that the Republican Party is not suppressing voters. Vetting mail-in ballots and their applications “is a two-party process,” she said.

Nichols said she believed the early voting ballot board was “sued for doing their duty” and “following the law.”

“Just like the board is made up of Republicans and Democrats, the rejected ballots are made up of Republicans and Democrats,” Nichols said.

Nichols said she forwarded the court order to an attorney from the Republican Party of Texas to hear “what they recommend we do.”

“If one ballot was turned in by somebody who fraudulently signed their name, the whole purpose of that board is to disallow that ballot,” she said, calling the court filing a “temper tantrum” thrown by Democrats.

Bernsen said the mail-in ballot controversy was “not a partisan issue.”

However, “only one party is trying to expand the right to vote,” Sparks said of the Democratic Party.

Nichols said she believed Democrats “just don’t like what the law says.

“The law determines who votes, not you, not me,” she said. “The Texas Election code determines who votes.” phoebe.suy@beaumont enterprise.com twitter.com/phoebesuy