Fifth Circuit Upholds Texas Ban on Paid Ballot | Political News
The Fifth Circuit just handed Texas a major win on poll harvesting, reversing a decrease court and permitting the state’s ban on paid in-person poll harvesting to take impact.
The ruling clears the best way for enforcement of a key provision in S.B. 1, the 2021 election integrity law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R). The statute targets compensated political operatives who work together with voters while they’re bodily handling ballots.
The law defines “vote harvesting services” as:
“in-person interaction with one or more voters, in the physical presence of an official ballot or a ballot voted by mail, intended to deliver votes for a specific candidate or measure.”
That definition is neither summary nor open-ended. It zeroes in on in-person conduct that happens in the presence of a poll and is meant to affect how that poll is solid. The statute doesn’t sweep in basic political advocacy. It addresses direct interplay with a voter while the poll itself is being dealt with.
The enforcement provision leaves little ambiguity. Under the statute, a individual commits an offense if he:
“knowingly provides or offers to provide vote harvesting services in exchange for compensation or other benefit.”
Put more plainly, Texas can prohibit somebody from being paid to hover over a voter while a poll is being accomplished and steer the voter toward a most popular candidate or measure.
Before the law ever took impact, the district court struck it down on its face, accepting arguments that it was obscure and burdened speech. The Fifth Circuit disagreed. The panel concluded that the statute is sufficiently clear and that Texas has a compelling curiosity in safeguarding election integrity, notably in the mail-in voting context where alternatives for abuse are more durable to detect.
The panel then pointed to precise enforcement data, noting:
Between 2004 and 2021, 72 % of all election prosecutions undertaken by the Texas Attorney General concerned mail poll fraud.
That is just not a theoretical concern. It is a documented sample. And it undercuts the argument that Texas was attempting to regulate a drawback that doesn’t exist.
The Supreme Court has already acknowledged that fraud is a real risk with mail-in voting. The Fifth Circuit leaned on that precedent and concluded Texas is effectively within its constitutional authority to draw this line.
Attorney General Ken Paxton called it a “major victory for election integrity.”
WIN: This is a major victory for election integrity. Thankful to the court. https://t.co/KWs9vW4Fms
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 13, 2026
Gov. Abbott famous that he signed the law criminalizing paid in-person poll harvesting and that the appeals court has now overturned the decrease court’s ruling.
I signed a law criminalizing paid in-person poll harvesting in elections.
A trial court ruled against me.
Today the Federal Court of Appeals overturned that faulty ruling and allowed the law to take impact.
Ballot harvesting is a crime in Texas.
We will win the combat to… https://t.co/tupt5ukBHI
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 13, 2026
I signed a law criminalizing paid in-person poll harvesting in elections.
A trial court ruled against me.
Today the Federal Court of Appeals overturned that faulty ruling and allowed the law to take impact.
Ballot harvesting is a crime in Texas.
We will win the combat to stop unlawful voting & dishonest at the poll box.
This is just not about turnout. It is just not about volunteers serving to voters navigate the method. It is about paid poll assortment operations that place political operatives bodily next to voters and their ballots.
The Fifth Circuit just made clear that Texas doesn’t have to tolerate that follow. For voters who need confidence that ballots are solid freely and counted pretty, this ruling is a significant and overdue reaffirmation of that precept.
Editor’s Note: Despite this win in Texas, Partisan federal judges are hijacking President Trump’s agenda and insulting the need of the people.
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