After reaching a deal less than a day earlier, overnight Sunday Texas state senators debated then passed along party lines a GOP voter suppression bill that was condemned by rights advocates and political figures across the United States—including President Joe Biden—and has sparked calls for Congress to urgently combat Republican attacks on democracy.
“Texas lawmakers would dismantle our democracy in order to keep themselves in power… The U.S. Senate must pass the For the People Act.”
—Beto O’Rourke, Texas political figure
“Today, Texas legislators put forth a bill that joins Georgia and Florida in advancing a state law that attacks the sacred right to vote,” Biden said Saturday. “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. It’s wrong and un-American. In the 21st century, we should be making it easier, not harder, for every eligible voter to vote.”
Sarah Labowitz, policy and advocacy director of the ACLU of Texas, also slammed the state GOP’s Senate Bill 7 (pdf) in a statement Saturday, declaring that “S.B. 7 is a ruthless piece of legislation.”
“It targets voters of color and voters with disabilities, in a state that’s already the most difficult place to vote in the country. The defining message of the 2021 Texas Legislature is clear: Political leaders chose to punish their constituents instead of fixing the electrical grid or providing pandemic or blackout relief,” said Labowitz, referencing power issues that impacted the state earlier this year.
“The bill, which was hashed out in a closed-door panel of lawmakers over the past week, was rushed to the State Senate floor late Saturday. In a legislative power play orchestrated by Republican lawmakers and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate moved to suspend rules that required a bill to be public for 24 hours before a final vote,” the New York Times reported. “The Texas House did not move to suspend the rules, and is likely to vote on the bill on Sunday.”
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature is set to adjourn on Monday. The Washington Post noted that GOP Gov. Greg Abbott “threatened lawmakers with a special session if they did not pass a voting” and is expected to sign S.B. 7. Abbott is a potential 2024 presidential candidate and a major supporter of former President Trump—who, despite his definitive loss, claimed repeatedly that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, which a majority of recently polled Republicans still believe.
Critics have called S.B. 7 a clear effort to limit electoral participation in the largely Democratic Harris County because it would outlaw drive-thru and 24-hour voting, which nearly 140,000 county voters used in the 2020 election. Other provisions include barring election officials from sending absentee ballots to all voters, implementing new identification requirements for Texans who request mail ballots, allowing partisan poll watchers additional access, and imposing harsher punishments on election officials who violate state rules.
According to the Post, “In a last-minute addition, language was inserted in the bill making it easier to overturn an election, no longer requiring evidence that fraud actually altered an outcome of a race—but rather only that enough ballots were illegally cast that could have made a difference.”
Journalist and voting rights expert Ari Berman said in response to the addition, “This is insane.”
“S.B. 7 remains a racist voter suppression bill that belongs in the Jim Crow era,” Common Cause Texas executive director Anthony Gutierrez said Saturday after a conference committee of state House and Senate members released the final version.
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