A federal appeals court on Tuesday said Texas’ law limiting ballot harvesting can remain in effect during this year’s election after a lower court put it on hold.

The three-judge panel didn’t rule on the merits of the law itself but said it was too late in the election season to impose a change on Texas.

“The district court issued this injunction after counties have already started to mail absentee ballots,” wrote Judge James Ho in the unanimous ruling for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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The case involves a law Texas enacted in 2021 to curtail ballot harvesting, which involves people helping fill out absentee ballots for other voters, or collecting and casting them.

Democrats defend the practice as a way to help the disabled vote without having to travel to submit their ballots. Republicans argue it opens the door to election mischief.

Texas, in that latter camp, banned vote harvesting if it’s part of a paid operation or intended to boost one party over the other.

The state said the law extends secret ballot protection to those who don’t make it to a polling place.

A number of immigrant and voting rights groups challenged the law, and a federal district judge last month ruled in their favor, issuing an injunction to block the law for this year’s election.

But Judge Ho said that runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s stated guideline that courts not impose last-minute changes on election rules.