In an attempt to impose severe voting restrictions in Texas aimed at Dems, the state's Republican legislature crafted a sinister bill that would have made voting by mail difficult, empowered partisan poll watchers to disrupt elections, and made elections easier to overturn by the Rethug majority. The Texas Senate passed the bill yesterday and sent the bill to the Texas House, where late last night, the entire Dem delegation walked out. Lacking the quorum required for a vote, the Rethugs had to adjourn without passing the bill. From the Associated Press:
"Texas Democrats pulled off a dramatic, last-ditch walkout in the state House of Representatives on Sunday night to block passage of one of the most restrictive voting bills in the U.S., leaving Republicans with no choice but to abandon a midnight deadline and declare the legislative session essentially over.
The revolt is one of Democrats’ biggest protests to date against GOP efforts nationwide to impose stricter election laws, and they used the spotlight to urge President Joe Biden to act on voting rights. [snip]
One by one, Democrats left the House chamber until there was no longer the 100-member quorum needed to pass Senate Bill 7, which would have reduced polling hours, empowered poll watchers and scaled back ways to vote in Texas, which already has some of the nation’s strictest voting laws."
Trumpist toady Gov. Gregg "Abbadabba" Abbott said after that he would call a special session at an undetermined time later this year to take up the bill again.
Trying to ensure that Republican pols choose the voters rather than the other way around, Texas' voting bill was couched in the deceitful premise that there was a problem to be solved, allegedly widespread voter fraud which hasn't been a factor in any national elections in modern history. The validity of the November 2020 election was confirmed by all 50 Secretaries of State, the cybersecurity command at the Department of Homeland Security, former Attorney General, and Trump's "Roy Cohn", Bill Barr, and through countless lawsuits which failed to prove election fraud.
Clearly, the "problem" that Republican pols are up against is the changing, increasingly pro-Dem demographic of their state that's eventually going to vote many of them out of office.
(photo: Dem legislators walk out to block voter suppression bill. Dallas Morning News)
