COURT GRANTS RELIEF IN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUIT
AGAINST STATE OF TEXAS TO ENFORCE RIGHTS OF OVERSEAS MILITARY AND CIVILIAN CITIZENS TO VOTE IN FEDERAL RUN-OFF ELECTION

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, a federal court in Texas entered an emergency order requiring Texas election officials to ensure that qualified overseas voters have a reasonable chance to vote in the state's April 9 primary run-off election for members of Congress and the United States Senate. The Department of Justice sued the State of Texas and its election officials on March 22, for their failure to take steps to ensure that Texas citizens living overseas will have a reasonable chance to vote in the upcoming federal run-off election.

"I am extremely pleased with today's decision by the court that will ensure that Texas voters overseas – many of whom are members of our armed forces and their families serving our country around the world – will have a reasonable chance to vote," said Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "We also look forward to working with the State of Texas and the Defense Department's Federal Voting Assistance Program to arrive at a permanent solution to ensure that overseas voters continue to have a reasonable opportunity to vote in future elections."

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Austin, alleged that qualified Texas voters living overseas would not be able to vote in the federal primary run-off election because election officials would not mail their absentee ballots in time for them to travel to their overseas locations, be marked and returned in time to be counted. Officials could not mail ballots until sometime after the March 12 primary election results were certified on March 20, and ballots must arrive back by April 11 to be counted as valid ballots.

The Department of Defense's Federal Voting Assistance Program officials, who oversees the administration of the federal law guaranteeing the rights of overseas voters to vote in federal elections, determined that Texas's schedule for mailing overseas absentee ballots was simply too short to allow a reasonable chance for those voters to vote. Run-off elections will be held on April 9 for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate, and in three Congressional Districts.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) requires states to allow uniformed services voters and other overseas citizens to register to vote and vote absentee for all elections for federal office. The Department of Justice has brought numerous suits under this law to ensure that overseas voters are not deprived of an opportunity to vote due to late mailing by election officials. In 1991, the Department of Justice brought a similar suit against Texas, and a federal district court entered relief for late mailing of overseas ballots for the 1991 special election to fill a vacancy in the Third Congressional District. In that case, the court extended the state's deadline for accepting overseas ballots.

The court ordered state election officials to allow qualified voters overseas to utilize a special federal write-in ballot to vote in the April 9 run-off election if they do not receive their state absentee ballot in time. These ballots are widely available at military bases and embassies around the world. The federal write-in ballot was authorized by the UOCAVA as a "back-up" ballot if voters did not receive their state ballots for federal general elections on time. Allowing Texas voters overseas to use these ballots for the primary run-off election will eliminate the time it would take for the state's ballots to reach the voters, thus affording a more realistic chance that their ballots will be received by election officials in time to be counted. Similar relief has been obtained in other UOCAVA lawsuits brought by the Department.

More information about the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice Internet site, www.usdoj.gov. Complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be called in to the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

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