This story was originally published by CNN.
For Houston-area retiree Pam Gaskin, voting is a ritual that starts every January when she completes her application for an absentee mail ballot.
This year, the 74-year-old printed the application on January 3, filled it out and mailed it to her local election office. Days later, a rejection letter arrived: The forms she had pulled from the county's website no longer complied with Texas law.
So, she tried again -- using the new form, which required her to submit a Texas identification number or partial Social Security number. But it, too, was rejected. The problem this time: She had submitted her driver's license number, but it didn't match the identification she used 46 years ago when she first registered to vote after moving to Fort Bend County.
"I am mad as hell," said Gaskin, who grew up watching her father pay poll taxes for himself and other African Americans in Galveston County so they could vote. "These are the things we fought 60 years ago, 50 years ago, and we are still fighting them. And that is not right."
Gaskin is among the Texans ensnared in the Lone Star State's restrictive new voting law, passed by the Republican-controlled legislature last year. It imposes a raft of changes in a state that already had some of the strictest voting regulations in the country. As early voting kicks off in the state on Monday, election officials and voters alike are grappling with confusion about the law in the first statewide election since it has taken effect.
At stake: primary races for governor and six other statewide offices, along with contests for state legislative and congressional seats and other local positions. Early, in-person voting runs through February 25. The final day of voting in the primary is March 1.
In addition to the new ID requirements to vote absentee, the law makes it a crime for a public official to mail out absentee ballot applications to voters who haven't requested them. SB1, as the law is known, also takes aim at Harris County -- home to Houston -- which offered 24-hour voting during the pandemic in 2020. The law limits early voting hours and bans drive-thru voting, another tool the county used.
The changes already have resulted in higher-than-usual rejection rates for absentee ballot applications. And some counties have begun to report new problems: Hundreds of mailed ballots flagged for rejection over ID requirements.
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