AUSTIN, Texas — A San Antonio federal judge has ordered everyone who enters or works at a Texas polling place to wear a face covering.
The order by U.S. District Judge Jason Pulliam, appointed by President Donald Trump, voided an exemption for polling sites that Gov. Greg Abbott had included in his statewide mask mandate.
The exemption, Pulliam ruled, violates the Voting Rights Act "because it creates a discriminatory burden on Black and Latino voters."
The pandemic has disproportionately affected minorities, placing them at higher risk of severe illness and death and forcing them to make "the unfortunate choice required between voting and minimizing their risk" of exposure under Abbott's poll exemption, the judge wrote.
"This discriminatory effect can be eliminated, or at least mitigated, if all people wear masks at polling sites," Pulliam wrote in an order released Tuesday night.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton followed Wednesday by filing an emergency petition asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block Pulliam's order.
Pulliam's mask requirement applied to all voters, poll workers and poll watchers and came more than two weeks after in-person early voting began in Texas. Early voting will continue through Friday, and Election Day is Tuesday.
The ruling came after the Texas chapter of the NAACP and Mi Familia Vota sued to force the state to adopt a list of safety requirements during the pandemic, including more polling locations, additional voting machines and an extra week of early voting on top of the six additional days already ordered by Abbott.
Pulliam, however, dismissed that lawsuit in early September, ruling that he lacked authority to order the changes because the power to administer elections and set voting procedures belongs to the Legislature and state agencies, not the courts.
The civil rights groups appealed, and the 5th Circuit Court upheld Pulliam's ruling but returned the matter to his court to determine whether there was a Voting Rights Act violation regarding face masks, which courts do have authority to decide.
"This is a major victory for democracy," said Hector Sanchez Barba, executive director and CEO of Mi Familia Vota. "Voters should not have to choose between protecting their health and exercising their fundamental right to vote."
"Millions of voters throughout Texas," said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP, "can now be assured that when they show up to vote for this election, the basic requirement of wearing a mask in public places during this pandemic will be applied to all polling sites."
Last weekend, the NAACP received reports of maskless poll watchers approaching minority voters as an intimidation technique, Bledsoe said.
