Little input on final draft of Senate’s voting bill
In the dead of night, while most Texans were asleep, the state Senate voted to approve a massive election bill that virtually no one had a chance to read in full after a flurry of amendments just prior to the vote.
Even though the bill affects more than 16 million voters in the state, lawmakers adjourned at 1:39 a.m. Thursday, then reconvened one minute later at 1:40 a.m. and declared it a new legislative day, in order to comply with public notice rules without slowing down its passage.
“We just concluded Tuesday,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced at 1:39 a.m. on Thursday (the legislative calendar almost always conflicts with reali
ty) before gaveling in all over again.
Lawmakers went even further to make like it was a new day. They did a morning roll call and a prayer, though just one minute had passed since they adjourned and nobody had left the Senate Chamber.
Thirty minutes later, Senate Bill 7 was a done deal. If approved by the Texas House and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott — who has made voting legislation a priority this year — its provisions will arm partisan poll watchers with new authority to capture video of voters at the polls and report them to authorities, a measure decried by civil rights groups that say it reeks of Jim Crow.
It also adds new restrictions for voting by mail, puts new restrictions on polling places in large counties — another feature that will suppress voters of color, opponents say — and prohibits keeping polls open late at night for those who work 9-to-5 jobs.
Meddling with the clock is a well-established custom in the Texas Legislature to speed things up. Over the years, the Senate has used the procedure late in the session when they are running short on time, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor.
But under Patrick, the Senate has used the tactic earlier in sessions. Patrick has been somewhat of a “racehorse” who wants to get priority bills voted on and sent to the House quickly, Rottinghaus said.
Regardless of why lawmakers are moving faster, the result is that the general public has less opportunity to review changes to important bills and to contact their representatives to voice support or opposition.
“There’s no way you’re going to get input at 2 a.m.,” said state Sen. John Whitmire of Houston, who joined every Democrat in the chamber in opposition to SB7.
To be sure, the public had many other chances to speak on the legislation last week. On Friday the Senate State Affairs Committee had a 13-hour hearing that included hours of testimony from the public on the bill. But that testimony was before the bill was rewritten after that hearing then heavily amended again in the wee hours of Thursday.
The Senate began debate on the bill on Wednesday night around 6 p.m. and went until 1:39 a.m. before flipping the calendar. That did give lawmakers more than seven hours to debate the bill, even though major portions of the bill later were changed during the debate. Patrick also gave Democrats wide latitude to question and debate the legislation because he said he recognized the bill’s importance.
The amendments altered the language on how the number of polling locations will be reduced, cut provisions that could have required people to get a doctor’s note to prove they are disabled and included restrictions on how poll watchers could use video recordings at a polling site.
Thursday evening, the Texas House was holding its own marathon evening on the legislation.