Like many of my friends and neighbors, I’ve been horrified by the many attempts to reduce voter turnout here in Texas.

No matter who ultimately wins the presidential election, we deserve to have all of our votes counted.

As if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t already made it more difficult to vote this year, the GOP kicked voter suppression efforts into high gear. First, they reduced ballot drop-off locations to only one per county, knowing perfectly well that their new policy would be inadequate for areas like Harris County where millions of people needed to use the same single ballot box.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the GOP then tried to invalidate more than 100,000 ballots legally cast at drive-thru polling centers. That was thrown out by the Texas Supreme Court. Now, after the Trump administration sought to slow down the mail during the critical weeks leading up to the election, the USPS is finding mail-in ballots left behind at its facilities in Texas.

These tactics are both partisan and dangerous to our democracy.

But despite attempts to suppress the vote, Texas showed up. We had the highest voter turnout since 1992. We can’t let partisan bickering result in any of those legitimate ballots being tossed out, should any federal court rule in favor of GOP-led efforts to exclude mail-in-votes. Everyone should have a voice in our elections democratic process, regardless of party affiliation, age, physical ability or any other factor. That means we must count every vote.

Sign this petition to demand that Texas Secretary of State Ruth R. Hughs ensure every vote is counted.