Additional context: there are many big, nearly-empty counties in West Texas that, frankly, should be completely empty, and I say that as someone whose maternal grandparents were born and grew up in Swisher County (Tulia and Happy), and whose dad now lives in Kent County - where a grand jury summons meant the prospect of 160 mile daily round trips because the county seat is on the north side of the county but he lives in the southwest corner, and the Panhandle's one lake of note being in the way means he has to drive a long ways around it. Kent County has about 1000 residents, and there are several other sub-1000 resident counties.

This also leads to fun effects like laws that each county can only have one ballot drop-off spot: sensible for those counties with fewer residents than many of the University of Texas dorms; a ridiculous nightmare for Dallas, Travis and Harris Counties (but that was kind of the point).

Are you not allowed to return ballots via the mail?

That's a quote from Emily Williams Knight, the president of the Texas Restaurant Association, previously published in the Wall Street Journal:

https://www.wsj.com/story/dreams-of-inexpensive-texas-barbec...

Of course, authority doesn't necessarily make something true, but it deserves a better counterargument than: "I just don't see that as a thing that can happen."

It is certainly hard to imagine losing something so central to a culture, but the financial plight of small town America is quite dire. Sometimes people have to give up things they love when they just can't afford them anymore.