(CN) - Texas officials asked a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Tuesday to reverse a federal judge's ruling blocking them from enforcing a state law banning paid political canvassing in the presence of a mail-in ballot.

Texas instituted the ban in 2021 as part of Senate Bill 1, an omnibus voting law that was passed following unsupported claims that Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election was the result of widespread fraud. The ban prohibits canvassers from receiving "compensation or other benefit" for providing "vote harvesting services," defined as an "in-person interaction with one or more voters, in the physical presence of an official ballot or a ballot voted by mail, intended to deliver votes for a specific candidate or measure." A violation of this provision is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

As part of a broader case challenging various provisions of SB 1, a coalition of advocacy groups brought suit to block enforcement of the vote harvesting ban. They claimed the provision is unclearly worded and that, as a result, they'd been forced to scale back their in-person voter outreach efforts for fear of accidentally violating it.

In September 2024, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas permanently enjoined the Texas secretary of state, the Texas attorney general and the district attorneys for several Texas counties from enforcing the harvesting ban, finding that it violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague. The George W. Bush appointee found that it isn't clear how close by a ballot needs to be for a canvasser to be "in the physical presence" of it and that "compensation or other benefit" could apply to things like food and water provided to volunteers.

A separate Fifth Circuit panel stayed Rodriguez's ruling to avoid changes to election laws close to the 2024 election.

U.S. Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones seemed skeptical of Rodriguez's reasoning, saying during Tuesday's hearing that "there's a lot I disagree with in the way the district court handled this."

Attorneys defending the ban told the panel that it actually has a narrowly targeted sweep. John Gore, an attorney representing Republican Party organizations that have intervened in the case to defend SB 1, described what he said is the "heartland" of what the harvesting ban prohibits: "a paid partisan going into someone's home while they held the ballot and actually walking them through how to mark the ballot, telling them which candidate to vote for, whether to vote yes or no on particular measures, and instructing the individual actually how to fill out the ballot."

Texas Deputy Solicitor General William Cole told the panel that the state is allowed to make "reasonable efforts to ensure that the right of a voter to pass the ballot free of taint and intimidation and fraud is secure." He likened the ban to laws that create buffer zones around polling places to protect people going to vote in person from electioneering, which the U.S. Supreme Court has said is constitutional.

But Zachary Tripp, an attorney representing some of the plaintiff advocacy groups, argued that the harvesting ban is different because it applies wherever a ballot is present, including the private homes of individuals who have invited canvassers in, whereas people going to a polling place are a "captive audience."

"Our tradition is that your home is your castle," Tripp said. "If you don't want to talk to somebody in your home, you ask them to leave. The government doesn't get to tell you who you're talking to."

Jones pushed back on this argument, saying that in Texas, mail-in ballots are primarily used by "the elderly or the infirm," who she argued could also be considered a captive audience.

"The whole point of this law is that a paid canvasser, presumably, is trained to appeal to the voter, to worm his or her way into the home, and then, you know, use special tactics to influence the voter so that he can deliver votes," the Ronald Reagan appointee said.

U.S. Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt and U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, both Donald Trump appointees, joined Jones on the panel.

Source: Courthouse News Service