Ashcroft defends sweeping Texas voting law, considers it a model for Missouri

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft defended a sweeping Texas election law in court recently, arguing it could be a model for Missouri as session gets underway.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last year legislation that tightened his state’s voting regulations, including by banning most drive-thru voting, prohibiting local election officials from distributing unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, and strengthening mail-in voting rules. Critics, including the state’s Democratic lawmakers, have said the new law is voter suppression.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued to block the Texas law, a move Ashcroft said was “partisan” in nature. Ashcroft, an attorney, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas in late December in defense of the law.

“The most important reason, I think, for me to get involved here is I believe that the state of Missouri knows best how to run the state of Missouri’s elections. If I do not defend the rights of states to run their own elections, then eventually the Department of Justice and the federal government will come and try to take over our elections,” Ashcroft said in an interview. “I think it’s improper that the Department of Justice, for partisan, political purposes, is besmirching the election laws that are duly passed and enacted in the state of Texas.”

Read more: https://themissouritimes.com/ashcroft-defends-sweeping-texas-voting-law-considers-it-a-model-for-missouri/