TEXAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday announced he has filed a lawsuit against Harris County Clerk Chris Collins for what Paxton deemed a “blatant violation of Texas election laws.”

The move comes after Collins refused to drop plans to send mail-in ballot applications to more than 2 million voters. Harris County includes Houston and the surrounding area.

It’s just the latest volley in the battle over mail-in voting in Texas and elsewhere across the United States. Paxton has maintained voting by mail presents a threat to election security, despite little evidence to suggest large-scale mail voting leads to fraud.

Despite the plan to distribute mail ballots, the official Twitter account for the Harris County clerk noted in a tweet that it is making 100 early voting locations and 800 Election Day locations available. 

Texas election law stipulates mail-in ballots are restricted to people 65 and older, people who will be out of the county during the election period, voters with a disability or illness, and people who are in jail but are still eligible to vote.

The Texas Tribune noted there is no specific Texas law that prohibits election officials from distributing mail-in ballot applications but that Paxton is arguing county clerks are only “expressly empowered” to send applications to those who request them

Texas is one of six states that has not modified mail-in ballot laws to accommodate for the threat of the novel coronavirus. You can read the lawsuit in its entirety below.