Texas Senate passes Republican vote bill after House members leave

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Along with Democrats in the Texas State House, U.S. Representative Mark Vesey (D-Texas) (centre) speaking for Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) (right) and Texas Representative Chris Turner (D-District 101) (left), president The Democratic Caucus at Texas House, listens during a news conference on voting rights outside the US Capitol on July 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

The Texas Senate passed a Republican-led election reform bill Tuesday night after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on the measure.

In a partisan vote of 18-4, Senate Republicans passed a controversial bill that Democrats and voter rights advocates say will suppress the votes of people of color and people with disabilities.

As many as 58 Democrats from Texas flew to Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday, in an effort to deny Republicans the quorum required to do business in the Chamber. However, on Tuesday, the Senate maintained a quorum of 22 of its 31 members, allowing that chamber to vote and pass Senate Bill 1.

The legislation will be weakened unless Texas Democrats return to the state before the 30-day special session called by Republican Governor Greg Abbott ends. Abbott has threatened to arrest state lawmakers as soon as they return, according to the Associated Press.

Texas is among several states that have enacted laws restricting voter access, which comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. .

Among the proposals included in the bill that passed Tuesday are a ban on drive-by voting, restrictions on 24-hour voting options, and new identification requirements for absentee voters. The bill would also prevent local officials from sending absentee vote requests to voters ineligible to vote by mail.

Democrats argued that the bill proposed by Republican senators was an attack on voting rights aimed at suppressing voter turnout.

“They won’t do it if they don’t think it will have a negative outcome, especially for Brown and black voters in Texas, and in other states with similar legislation,” Rep. Mark said. Vesey, one of the Democrats who fled, said in a statement on Tuesday.

However, Republicans maintain that the law will secure the election process, even calling it the “Texas Election Integrity Act.”

“This bill is intended to make voting easy and difficult to cheat,” said Senator Brian Hughes, the bill’s author, the Texas Tribune reported Tuesday.

Hughes blamed the backlash around the bill on “a shocking, misleading, and false national debate that came out of Washington,” according to the Tribune.

U.S. Representative Mayes Middleton (R-Texas) (C) of the Texas Freedom Caucus addresses the media at the Texas Capitol on July 13, 2021 in Austin, Texas.

Montenique Monroe | Getty Images

Democrats from Texas said they fled to the nation’s capital to pressure Congress to pass voting rights legislation, such as the Act for the People, amid efforts by Republican-led state legislatures across the country to reform voting rules.

“We also know we live in lost time in Texas, and we can’t stay here indefinitely to run out of time to stop Republican anti-voter attacks,” Representative Rita Powers, another Democrat on the run, said in a statement. Tuesday statement. “That’s why we need Congress to act now to pass a bill for the people. Texas Democrats will do everything we can to respond. But we need Congress to act now.”

Vice President Kamala Harris met with Democrats from Texas on Tuesday, and Senator Joe Manchin, Deutsche Welle Virginia, is expected to meet with them as well. Manchin did not respond on Tuesday when asked if he would support stalling in the Senate to pass the Voting Rights Act. He has previously opposed making changes to the stall.

Also on Tuesday, President Joe Biden delivered a major speech in Philadelphia denouncing his predecessor’s “big lie” about the stolen election. The president called on Congress to pass a bill for the people and restore the Voting Rights Act.

NBC News reported that more than 150 companies, including Amazon, Target and PepsiCo, also supported updating the Voting Rights Act in a new letter released Wednesday.

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