I loaded, I put my ballot in the ballot envelope, I put the ballot envelope into the carrier envelope,

and I looked for a place where I could write down my Texas driver's license, and I couldn't find it

anywhere, I couldn't find a place anywhere, and on a few days after the election, I received a letter

from my local elections office to say that my ballot had been rejected due to a carrier defect,

that's what they called it, a carrier defect. That was Matt Align, a voter in Texas. Last year,

Texas passed a law restricting how and when voters could cast their ballots. It limited voting

hours, banned, drive-through voting, and set new ID requirements for voting by mail. And when

Texas held primary elections in March, it was chaos and confusion for voters and election officials.

Almost 25,000 mail-in ballots were rejected statewide according to the Texas Secretary of State's office,

that's more than 12% of the ballots cast. In the 2020 presidential election, the rejection rate was

under 1%, and Texas is only one of 19 states that have passed laws limiting voter access in 2021,

including Georgia and Arizona. As part of our new project called Remaking America,

we're talking about voting rights and voter access in Texas and beyond. We're collaborating with

six public radio stations across the country to explore the ways democracy is working for Americans,

and the ways it's not. We'll be back with more after the break. I'm Jen White. You're listening

to the OneA podcast where we get to the heart of the story. To join future conversations,

have your questions answered on future topics, or just to let us know what you think.

Tweet us at OneA.

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