Opponents of voting rights are after Houston again, John.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently threatened Harris County (which contains Houston) with a state takeover of its elections. This is just the latest step in an ongoing escalation of long-simmering threats to gain control of voting in the fourth-largest city in the United States. 

Why? Because a GOP state lawmaker alleged that 100 voters were unlawfully registered using post office box addresses instead of street addresses. 100 potentially inaccurate registrations out of more than 2.5 million registered voters and a county population of 4.7 million people -- 0.04% of registrations. Imagine taking over a whole county's elections process over four-hundredths of a percentage point?

The vote suppressors have targeted Houston for years. They started after widespread use of mail-in ballots drove high voter participation during the pandemic, attacking how the county collected ballots. Then Gov. Abbott signed two suppressive bills into law that only affected Harris County and no others in the state. Now he's threatening a full partisan takeover of Houston's voting process in order to restrict ballot access in the county where his party does the worst in elections.

Opponents of voting rights in Texas have gone too far, John, and we need to fight back. Chip in with $5, $10, $25 or whatever you can right now to stop suppression like this and defend our fundamental right to vote in Houston and across the country >>

Need a refresher? In 2023, Texas's state legislature passed SB-1993, which empowers a partisan state official to override the vote in counties with populations higher than 2.7 million if they run low on paper ballots for more than an hour anytime on election day. Harris County -- home to Houston and those 4.7 million people -- was the only Texas county with a population that big and potentially subject to partisan takeover.  

Opponents of voting rights consistently attack our cities and the voters who live in and around them. It's part of their explicit strategy as their ability to tip the scales in elections has eroded and barriers to voting have been broken down. One of the 2023 laws was even written by an anti-voting Houston-area state senator in order to prop up his own party and protect their power in a state that's continually sliding away from MAGA.

Voter suppression anywhere hurts us everywhere, John. Fuel our efforts to fight back with $35 or whatever you can today to make sure our votes count and everyone is heard in our elections >>

Integrity First Voter Action Project is dedicated to expanding ballot access and increasing voter participation across the country.

Since the Supreme Court gutted key provisions in the Voting Rights Act, extreme politicians have taken advantage to pass harsh laws that restrict access to the ballot box. These restrictions particularly affect disadvantaged communities and people of color. It’s our goal to bring awareness to these laws wherever they may crop up and organize voters to take action to ensure the right to vote is available to everyone in their states and communities.

Your support is crucial to our efforts. Will you donate today to help us protect voting rights?

Contributions or gifts to Integrity First Voter Action Project are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions or as business expenses under IRC Section 162(3). Integrity First Voter Action Project is organized and operates under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.

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