XPost: alt.politics.elections, alt.politics.democrats, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: cheating-democrat-cowards@cnn.com   
      
   Texas Democrats on Sunday night used every parliamentary tool at   
   their disposal to effectively kill a bill that would add new   
   restrictions to elections in the state, ultimately staging a   
   walkout to prevent a vote from being held before a midnight   
   deadline.   
      
   Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said that the bill would be added to   
   a special session agenda.   
      
   Senate Bill 7, known as the Election Integrity Protection Act,   
   passed the state Senate along party lines early Sunday morning   
   after an all-night debate. The bill came up in the state House   
   Sunday evening for final approval. But after hours of debate and   
   delaying tactics, the chamber adjourned after Democratic   
   lawmakers left in protest, breaking quorum and ending debate. At   
   least 100 lawmakers must be present to conduct business.   
      
   The sweeping bill would ban drive-thru voting, limit voting   
   hours, make it more difficult to cast mail ballots and empower   
   partisan poll watchers. The final version of S.B. 7 was the   
   result of a bicameral group of mostly Republican lawmakers   
   reconciling proposals previously passed by both chambers.   
   Elements were hashed out behind closed doors, and Democrats have   
   argued they were left largely in the dark as last-minute changes   
   and entirely new provisions were pushed through.   
      
   Democrats on Sunday night repeatedly pointed to language that   
   could make it easier to overturn an election in Texas that was   
   not included in original legislation. According to the bill   
   text, a court may void an election if the number of fraudulent   
   votes cast could change the result, whether or not fraud was   
   proven to have affected the outcome.   
      
   Opponents railed against the new measures during debate Sunday   
   night, calling them “unconscionable” and undemocratic. “The   
   voices of Texans were not heard in this debate,” state Rep. John   
   Bucy III said.   
      
   But Republican state Rep. Travis Clardy said lawmakers who back   
   the additions had done their “level best” to be transparent and   
   release information. The legislation will “make it easier for   
   Texans to vote” and “harder to cheat” for “those determined to   
   break the law,” he said.   
      
   Breaking quorum to block passage of a bill is rare — Texas   
   lawmakers have done it only three other times, according to The   
   Dallas Morning News. It happened most recently in 2003, when   
   Democratic lawmakers fled to Oklahoma.   
      
   The final version of S.B. 7 would preserve 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.   
      
   The bill would also prohibit Sunday voting before 1 p.m., which   
   critics called an attack on what is commonly known as “souls to   
   the polls” — a get-out-the vote campaign used by Black church   
   congregations nationwide. The idea traces back to the civil   
   rights movement. Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier,   
   chairwoman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, said the   
   change is “going to disengage, disenfranchise those who use the   
   souls to the polls opportunity.”   
      
   Collier was one of three Democrats picked to negotiate the final   
   version, none of whom signed their name to it. She said she saw   
   a draft of the bill around 11 p.m. Friday — which was different   
   than one she had received earlier that day — and was asked for   
   her signature the next morning.   
      
   Texas was 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 voted on this weekend.   
      
   President Joe Biden criticized the GOP-backed legislation in a   
   statement Saturday, calling it "part of an assault on democracy   
   that we’ve seen far too often this year—and often   
   disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans."   
      
   He again called on Congress to pass federal voting rights   
   legislation.   
      
   Republicans have argued that strict penalties and empowered poll   
   watchers would deter fraud, though there is no proof widespread   
   fraud occurs. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office spent   
   22,000 hours looking for voter fraud in 2020 and uncovered just   
   16 cases of false addresses on registration forms, according to   
   The Houston Chronicle. Nearly 17 million voters are registered   
   in Texas.   
      
   https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/texas-democrats-stage-   
   walkout-stop-debate-restrictive-voting-bill-delaying-n1269079   
      
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