Texas voting law hits Black voters hard

People stand in line to testify before the House Select Committee on Constitutional Rights and Remedies, which began hearings on bail reform and election integrity bills, at the Texas State Capitol on July 10, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Lawmakers are using a special session of the 87th Legislature to work through a list of priorities set by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott which include overhauling the state voting laws, bail reform, border security, social media censorship, and critical race theory. Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images

The rate of rejected mail ballots soared in the March primary elections in Texas — and those rejections disproportionately affected Democrats, especially Black voters in the state's biggest county.

Nearly 23,000 ballots, or about 13% of all returned mail ballots, were thrown out across 187 Texas counties in the March primaries, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. In past election years, the rejection rate was around 1% to 2%, according to the Texas Tribune.