Voting bills spur demand for action
Letter to partnership calls for denunciation of Texas legislation
A group of Greater Houston Partnership members is urging the region’s largest chamber of commerce to oppose voting bills in the Texas Legislature that critics say will make casting a ballot more difficult in Harris County, especially for residents of color.
The dispute comes weeks after several major Texas corporations denounced the proposed legislation and nearly a year after the GHP committed to fighting racial inequality in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police.
The 10 business leaders sent a letter to GHP President Bob Harvey and Board Chair Amy Chronis on Monday with a proposed statement condemning Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6 as currently written.
“New election legislation in Texas should expand, instead of limit, options for civic participation,” the statement reads in part. “Certain provisions of these bills are contrary to these objectives and should be eliminated or modified. We stand ready to work constructively to effect necessary changes in these bills.”
Harvey said in a statement that “we should be working towards an election system that offers every Texan unfettered access to the polls and instills confidence in everyone that the system is fair.” He declined to comment about ongoing discussions about the voting bills.
The letter’s signatories — Tony Chase, Paul Hobby, Carrin Patman, Gerald Smith, Donna Sims Wilson, Mia Mends, Wayne McConnell, Jim Postl, Claudia Aguirre and Ann Stern — declined to comment beyond the letter or did not respond.
The Republican legislators who
proposed the legislation say the bills are necessary to make elections more secure, though there is little to no evidence of voter fraud in Texas elections. Several of the provisions are specifically aimed at scaling back efforts Harris County made in 2020 to make voting easier.
Certain parts of both bills are “highly objectionable and greatly disadvantageous to communities of color” and “further impose unnecessary and overreaching burdens on Harris County voters,” the GHP members wrote in the letter.
In particular, the members said they were concerned about proposals that would reallocate polling machines away from inner Houston, limit extended voting hours and ban drive-through voting options that were popular with Black and Latino voters in 2020. They also opposed a provision that would allow partisan poll watchers to record voters, given historic voter intimidation practices by political groups.
The group said proposals that create criminal penalties for poll workers and elections officials who violate the Texas Election Code are “onerous and unnecessary.”
Other provisions address valid concerns, the members said, including prohibiting counties from mailing absentee ballot applications to all registered voters regardless or eligibility, as Harris County attempted in 2020.
The Greater Houston Partnership regularly issues statements on issues of public policy. The GHP urged Gov. Greg Abbott to oppose the so-called bathroom bill in 2017 over fears it would discourage businesses from investing in the state. The group lobbied legislators to approve Houston’s pension reform deal a year earlier.
It has yet to take a public position on S.B. 6 and H.B. 7, which have not reached the governor’s desk. The group issued a broad statement on voting laws April 1, urging the Legislature to maintain confidence in elections while ensuring ballot access to all voters.
Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said he is unsure how the partnership’s tepid approach so far follows the commitment to fighting racial injustice it made after the death last year of Floyd, who grew up in Houston.
In a statement this past June, the GHP said that while systemic racism is not unique to Houston, “we have an opportunity as Houstonians to lead the way in reforming broken systems, building up communities, offering support and removing barriers.”
“During this period of racial reconciliation, equity has to be more than a six-letter word,” said Ellis, who also urged the partnership to speak out against the voting bills in a letter April 19.
The GHP members who wrote Monday’s letter echoed that point, arguing that publicly denouncing the bills would show that the partnership is serious about following its recently adopted Principles of Racial Equity.
“Opposing discriminatory impediments to voting could not be more important to the commitments in the principles of ‘reforming systems of bias, strengthening underserved communities, advocating inclusion and removing barriers to achievement,’” the group wrote.
The partnership, which has 136 board members, has yet to schedule a meeting to discuss the group’s proposed statement.
Mayor Sylvester Turner criticized the proposed legislation as discriminatory toward minorities.
“I firmly believe the GHP should take a strong position against voter suppression bills S.B. 7 and H.B. 6, and I have advised the organization of my position,” the mayor said.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has called on business leaders to rally against the bills. She commended the GHP members who wrote the letter.
“Harris County residents showed the nation in the last election that we can have secure and convenient elections so I’m not surprised that our Harris County business leaders also treasure fair access to the ballot box,” Hidalgo said. “More and more business leaders are speaking out because they recognize democracy is good for business.”
Texas corporations, including American Airlines and Dell Technologies, have also publicly opposed the bills.