Governor signs new law that adds more voting restrictions

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an elections overhaul into law Tuesday that adds more voting restrictions in the booming state, after Democrats spent months protesting what they say are efforts to weaken minority turnout and preserve the GOP’S eroding dominance.

Abbott signed the sweeping changes during a ceremony in the East Texas city of Tyler, where the surrounding county went for former President Donald Trump by a more than 2-to-1 margin last year. But it was far closer in Texas overall, with Trump carrying the state by 5½ points, the thinnest margin of victory by a GOP presidential nominee here in decades.

The bill signing again underlined the hard right turn Texas Republicans made this year, including a new state law that took effect last week banning most abortions.

Texas is among at least 18 states that have enacted new voting restrictions since the 2020 election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The laws are part of a national GOP campaign, including in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, to tighten voting laws in the name of security, partly driven by Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen.

Opponents did not wait for Abbott’s signature to begin filing lawsuits against the new Texas law known as Senate Bill 1. The American Civil Liberties Union, minority rights groups and disability advocates are part of a broad coalition that filed separate lawsuits last week in federal court in Texas, accusing Republicans lawmakers of violating the federal Voting Rights Act and intentionally discriminating against minorities.

Some changes squarely take aim at the Houston area, where President Joe Biden carried the surrounding county of 1.6 million voters by a 13-point margin. Amid the pandemic last year, Harris County elections officials offered 24-hour polling places and drive-thru voting, which are outlawed under the new law. The county also tried sending mail-in ballot applications to more than 2 million registered voters, but going forward in Texas, any elections officials who try sending an application to someone who doesn’t request one could face criminal charges.

Partisan poll watchers are now also entitled to more movement, and election judges who obstruct them could also face criminal penalties, which Democrats argue could lead to voter intimidation.

In response to new voting restrictions in Gop-controlled statehouses, Democrats in Congress want to pass voting rights protections at the federal level but have been unable to overcome opposition form Senate Republicans.

LM OTERO/ASSOCIATED PRESS Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shows off Senate Bill 1, also known as the election integrity bill, after he signed it Tuesday into law in Tyler, Texas. The sweeping law has already drawn lawsuits against it.