AUSTIN, Texas -- According to the Travis County Clerk, a record number of voters requested a ballot by mail for the July 14 primary runoff.

“I actually have a skin condition that required me to take an aggressive antibiotic which lowers my immune system. As a result I do not feel safe going to the polls and so I requested to vote by mail. I did receive my ballot and I was able to cast my ballot safely from home,” said Travis County voter Jen Ramos.

Currently, there are strict guidelines for who qualifies for ballots by mail. That includes registered voters 65 years of age or older, members of the armed services serving overseas, voters with a disability, and voters who won't be in their region during election time. Advocates and voters like Ramos insist this method of voting should be made more accessible to voters given the global pandemic.

“When you think about the mail system, if they can send us a stimulus check through the mail or if they can send us any kind of legal paperwork regarding proceedings by mail, why can’t we trust a ballot by mail?” she said.

Ramos believes state leaders ought to use the state's voter rolls to automatically mail out applications for mail in ballots to registered voters in an effort to reduce risk of COVID-19 infections.

“It doesn’t take much effort to send every single Texan who is registered to vote in the state a vote by mail application, and so the fact that we are not effectively doing that and protecting our citizens in the state and giving them the opportunity to make their voice heard is voter suppression," she said.

Critics including President Donald Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have repeatedly stated that mail-in voting opens the door to fraud and has the capacity to compromise the November election. Several states already permit voting by mail, however, and studies have not linked voting by mail to fraud in any meaningful way. 

The general election is November 3.