Last week, the Texas Appeals Court invalidated a lawsuit by the Texas GOP against drive-thru voting. The argument by the appeals court to dismiss the lawsuit basically revolved around the fact that the lawsuit being placed hours before early voting begins after months of notice invalidates the suit. The Texas GOP should have acted sooner.

On appeal the Texas Supreme Court today asked for more briefing materials instead of upholding the decision. This is a big red-flag according to the Harris County Clerk.

Summary of the press conference:

• The Texas Supreme Court was expected to dismiss the suit considering they have taken a hard stand not to jump into rulings this close to an election so they were expected to uphold considering the election is well underway but today (or yesterday) they asked for more information which means the suit is in danger of being given a case.

• The Harris County Clerk has worked with the Texas Secretary of State on drive-thru voting and had the office's blessing, but they have gone completely radio silent.

https://twitter.com/AdamBennettKHOU/status/1318689961491783680

• There is a non-zero chance that the Texas Supreme Court will step in and force Harris County to close down all drive-thru voting.

• There is a less, but still, non-zero chance that the Texas Supreme Court will order Harris County to discard the 70,000+ votes placed via drive-thru voting.

• The Clerk's office is taking the very low but still non-zero chances of massive voter disenfranchisement seriously and is developing plans.

My take:

The Texas GOP won't be successful but by doing this they are spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. They're banking on people getting wind of this and not voting at all.

That said, polling in Texas looks bad for Republicans at both the Presidential level as well as the State of Texas House. There's about a 1 in 3 chance that Democrats take control of the State Legislature. This is big, because whoever wins this legislature controls redistricting for the next decade.

As the Republicans grasp at maintaining power, what steps will they take to ensure they don't become the minority party? Is disenfranchising voters one of the steps?