Supreme Court declines to review Texas voter assistance restrictions, in blow to civil rights groups

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a pair of challenges to Texas’s ban on paid voter assistance, leaving in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the restrictions.  

The decision is a setback for civil rights and voting rights groups, which argued the state law undermines a section of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) that establishes protections for voters who may require assistance with casting a ballot.  

Section 208 guarantees that any voters who need help due to blindness, disability or the inability to read or write may receive assistance by a “person of the voter’s choice,” excluding certain individuals such as employers, supervisors and union officers.  

Texas in 2021 adopted Senate Bill 1, a measure that included a provision making it a felony crime to compensate someone or receive compensation for assisting a voter with a mail-in ballot.  

The law was promptly challenged in separate lawsuits by La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and other........

© The Hill