Alexa Ura

With less than a month left to vote by mail in the March primary election, hundreds of applications for mail-in ballots are being rejected as both Texas voters and local election officials decipher new ID requirements enacted by Republican lawmakers.

The redrawn state Senate District 10 splits Black and Hispanic voters in Tarrant County. A full trial on whether GOP lawmakers intentionally discriminated against voters of color is expected later this year.

The challenged provision makes it a state jail felony for election officials to “solicit the submission” of an application to vote by mail if the voter did not request it.

In just 16 of the state’s largest counties, more than 18,000 mail-in ballots were rejected, most for failing to meet the new law’s ID requirements. A full statewide tally isn’t yet available.

Mason said she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote when she cast a provisional ballot in 2016, but she was sentenced to five years in prison. Now, the Court of Criminal Appeals says an appellate court that affirmed her conviction must look again at the evidence of Mason’s intent.

They were high school sweethearts. Irma Garcia taught at Robb Elementary for her entire 23-year career. Her husband died of a heart attack two days after she was shot.

Alexa Ura is a reporter at The Texas Tribune. As the Tribune’s demographics reporter, she covers the intersection between politics and race with an emphasis on the state’s surging Hispanic population. She also covers voting rights issues for the Tribune, where she started as a reporting fellow in 20…

For years, the state’s Hispanic population has grown significantly faster than the white population. The new census data is the first to reflect Texas passing a milestone in its cultural and political evolution.

Federal monitors will be on the ground in Harris, Dallas and Waller counties on Election Day as part of the department’s regular deployment for major elections.

After several Harris County polling places opened late, a state district judge ordered voting locations there to stay open until 8 p.m. But the state’s highest civil court blocked that ruling.