Texas Democratic state representatives are on the lam from their legislative session in Austin, trying to prevent the passage of a bill that would curtail many voting rules implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
TEXAS CONGRESSMAN ASKS CAPITOL SERGEANT-AT-ARMS TO HELP EXTRADITE FUGITIVE STATE DEMOCRATS
Nearly 60 Texas Democratic legislators fled Austin to Washington, D.C., on Monday to obstruct a Republican voter reform bill in the Texas Legislature.
Their absence on the Texas House chamber floor means there are not enough lawmakers to form a quorum to conduct legislative business. So, the Republican voter bill remains stalled in the Senate during the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott late last week.
The session expires on Aug. 7. But Abbott, who ordered the legislators’ arrest upon return, promised he would call for another special session if necessary.
The bill, dubbed by the fugitive legislators on Tuesday in Washington as an example of “Jim Crow 2.0,” includes rolling back COVID-19 safety protocol election measures implemented by Harris County during the last election cycle.
These provisions include bans on drive-thru voting and 24-hour uninterrupted voting. The bill would also prohibit local election officials from sending unsolicited applications but allows for requesting a mail-in ballot.
Requests for voting by mail, according to the legislation, would require new voter identification standards. Voters would be mandated to provide their driver’s license number or if they do not have a license, the last four digits of their Social Security number on applications for those ballots.
However, Democrats argue the bill’s measures are intended to suppress voter turnout, despite the initial reason — in this case, the pandemic — that the voter protocols and systems were set up.
“Texas had one of the highest voter turnouts in the last election, and our Republican-appointed secretary of state said that those elections were safe and secure and successful. Suppression is not always overt. It could be subtle,” Texas Rep. Nicole Colliers told the Washington Examiner. “Subtle in the form of empowering partisan poll watchers who get a warning before they can be removed from the polling locations, but those poll workers face immediate criminal sanctions.”
Most Democrats want to repeal the Senate filibuster in Congress, which requires 60 votes for legislation to be considered. That Senate rule is blocking the passage of key voting legislation, according to Democratic senators.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat whose Republican-led state Legislature recently passed a raft of voting reform measures, echoed his Democratic colleagues in calling for scrapping the filibuster.
“We have to pass voting rights this Congress. No Senate rule supersedes people’s constitutional rights,” he said. “This is a 911 emergency.”
Republicans say the election measures implemented during the pandemic were meant to be temporary solutions when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its deadliest last year. However, Democrats saw an exponential turnout in their party voters, specifically through mail-in voting in the last cycle.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, co-author of S.1 and chairwoman of the Committee on Rules and Administration, claims the use of the new systems benefits everyone.
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“And I would remind you, Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the country. And we have elected Republican governors and Democratic governors and Jesse Ventura. And that was with the highest voter turnout,” Klobuchar said. “The answer there is it doesn’t necessarily benefit one party or another sometimes.”
