Voting bill is test of power for Dems

Federal reform effort targets Texas’ strict laws, redistricting

WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are pushing a sweeping rewrite of the country’s voting laws, essentially establishing a new national election code aimed at reining in states like Texas, where Republicans for years have worked to limit access to the ballot.

Texas has voting laws that are among the strictest in the nation, and the bill would target virtually all of them. It would ban voter ID laws, institute automatic and same-day voter registration and it would expand mail-in and early voting options. And it would take redistricting out of the hands of the state’s lawmakers just as they’re gearing up to redraw political boundaries.

It’s also a way for the Democrats to push back against Republicans who supported Donald Trump as he made unprecedented and base

less claims that the November election was stolen from him because voting access was expanded during the pandemic.

“This bill restores guardrails to our democracy that almost went off the rails as Republicans pledged their loyalty to the cult of Donald Trump,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio.

Democrats have long believed that if they can ramp up turnout, especially of young and minority voters, they can win Texas, the biggest remaining Republican state. The GOP relies on Texans and their 38 electoral votes to compete with the Democrats in presidential elections.

But how far Democrats will be able to get the bill, which passed the House on Wednesday night along party lines, is questionable at best as it heads to an evenly divided Senate. Texas Republicans,

who say voting restrictions are meant to safeguard against election fraud, unanimously opposed the bill in the House, blasting it as federal overreach by politicians angling to stay in power.

“The Democrats are doing everything they can to retain power in Washington, even if that means nationalizing our state and local elections,” said U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, echoing Trump, who said last year that Republican candidates would never win again if voting were made too easy.

The legislation — which Democratic leaders say is a top priority — is an early test of just how much the party is able to get done with its newfound, albeit narrow, control of Washington.

But they face an uphill battle at best in the 50-50 Senate, as each would need to clear a 60-vote threshold to pass unless Democrats scrap the filibuster — a rule that at least a couple of Democratic senators have said they won’t toss

out.

And if Democrats are able to peel off any Republican votes for the bills, they won’t be Texans. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn spent Thursday morning sparring with Beto O’Rourke on Twitter over whether restrictions disenfranchise voters.

“It is a myth,” Cornyn tweeted, pointing to record-breaking turnout as some 11 million Texans voted in November. “Anybody qualified to vote, can vote in Texas. Period.”

More than 60 percent of registered voters in Texas cast ballots in 2020 — the best mark in three decades. The state still lagged behind most others.

The sweeping reforms follow a contentious election season that saw state leaders clash with local officials in places like Harris County over efforts to expand voting options during the pandemic.

They come as state lawmakers in Texas are pushing further restrictions and preparing to redraw congressional maps — something that would be taken out of their

hands if Democrats pass the bill soon enough as it would require redistricting to be done by independent panels.

“It would be a huge, huge deal for Texas voters,” said Grace Chimene, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, a group that supports the legislation. “It’s like having a new Voting Rights Act that would protect the rights of voters, make it fair and equal access to voting here in Texas.”

Among other measures, state lawmakers are now pushing bills that would make voting by mail more complicated and would scale back hours for polling places.

The federal legislation would stop those efforts, but its changes to how political boundaries are drawn may have some of the biggest effects on Texas, where Republicans control the Legislature and are expected to draw districts that benefit GOP candidates for the next 10 years as Texas becomes an increasingly competitive state. Texas lawmakers will also be drawing boundaries for two to three more seats in Congress.

The bill would take redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers and create independent panels to draw boundaries — something already in place in several states. It includes provisions to prevent the drawing of districts to break up communities of color, which could have a big impact on Texas’ increasingly diverse — and Democratic trending — suburbs, said Michael Li, an expert on redistricting who serves as senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

The legislation would create a legal framework to test districts for gerrymandering and would expedite the legal challenges that are almost certain to follow Texas’ new maps, as well.

“This is the pushback to all the efforts going on in states including Texas to rollback long-standing voter practices,” Li said.