Legislature sends sweeping GOP voting bill to governor

The Texas Legislature sent a sweeping rewrite of the state’s election laws to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, dealing a bruising defeat for Democrats after a monthslong, bitter fight over voting rights.

Abbott said he would sign the bill, which could happen in the coming days.

Even the final vote did not escape a parting round of confrontation after Senate Republicans scuttled one the few areas of bipartisan agreement at the last minute: language that would have shielded voters with felony convictions from prosecution if they cast a ballot without knowing they were ineligible to vote. It had been included following backlash over the arrests of two Texas voters, both of whom are Black, which intensified criticism amid a broader fight over voting restrictions that opponents say disproportionately impact people of color.

The rest of the far-reaching legislation, spurred in part by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, had set off a heated summer in Texas of walkouts by Democrats, Republicans threatening them with arrest, Abbott vetoing the paychecks of thousands of rank-and-file staffers when the bill failed to reach him sooner, and accusations of racism and voter suppression.

“The emotional reasons for not voting for it are that is creates hardships for people because of the color of their skin and their ethnicity, and I am part of that class of people,” said Democrat Garnet Coleman, a state representative whose return to the Capitol earlier this month helped end a 38-day standoff.