Texas GOP puts final touches on new voting laws across the Lone Star State
Texas Republicans dug in Saturday for a final weekend vote on new voting laws in the U.S., putting the last touches on a sweeping bill that would eliminate drive-thru voting, empower partisan poll watchers and limit voting on Sundays.
The changes would need to be approved before midnight on Sunday, when the GOP-controlled Legislature wraps up a session dominated by Republicans muscling through staunchly conservative measures pertaining to guns, abortion and how race can be taught in public schools.
But none have drawn backlash like Senate Bill 7, which Republicans packed with a raft of new voting laws that would alter how the country's biggest red state conducts elections.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign the measure, which Democrats have said they would challenge in court
Democrats have virtually no path to stop it from passing, thereby putting Republicans on the brink of a major victory in their nationwide campaign to impose new voting laws.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign the measure, which Democrats have said they would challenge in court.
President Joe Biden released a statement calling the Texas bill's final form 'wrong and un-American.'
'Today, Texas legislators put forth a bill that joins Georgia and Florida in advancing a state law that attacks the sacred right to vote. It´s part of an assault on democracy that we´ve seen far too often this year - and often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans,' Biden said.
The final version of the bill was hashed out behind closed doors by negotiators from the state House and Senate, nearly all of whom were Republicans.
They preserved the elimination of 24-hour polling stations and drive-thru voting centers, both of which Harris County, the state's largest Democratic stronghold, introduced last year in an election that saw record turnout.
Texas Republicans dug in Saturday, May 29 for a final weekend vote on new voting laws
Texas is also set to newly empower partisan poll watchers, allowing them more access inside polling places and threatening criminal penalties against elections officials who restrict their movement. Republicans originally proposed giving poll watchers the right to take photos, but that language was removed from the final bill that lawmakers were set to vote on this weekend.
Another new provision could also make it easier to overturn an election in Texas, allowing for a judge to void an outcome if the number of fraudulent votes cast could change the result, regardless of whether it was proved that fraud affected the outcome.
Major corporations, including Texas-based American Airlines and Dell, have warned that the measures could harm democracy and the economic climate. But Republicans shrugged off their objections, and in some cases, ripped business leaders for speaking out.
The top Republican negotiators, state Sen. Bryan Hughes and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, called the bill 'one of the most comprehensive and sensible election reform bills' in Texas' history.
'Even as the national media minimizes the importance of election integrity, the Texas Legislature has not bent to headlines or corporate virtue signaling,' they said in a joint statement.
Since Trump's defeat, at least 14 states have enacted more new voting laws, according to the New York-based Brennan Center for Justice.
No comments