TEXAS REPUBLICANS FINALIZE MAJOR BILL OF VOTING LIMITS

Measure would ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting, limit absentee voting, add ID rules

Texas lawmakers on Saturday finished drafting a bill that would impose a raft of new voting restrictions, setting up the likely passage of legislation that would be among the most far-reaching laws in Republicans’ nationwide drive to overhaul election systems and limit voting.

The bill would tighten what are already some of the nation’s strictest voting laws and would specifically target balloting methods that were employed for the first time last year by Harris County, home to Houston.

In addition to banning drive-thru voting and 24-hour voting, which were used by nearly 140,000 voters in Harris County during the 2020 election, it would prohibit election officials from sending absentee ballots to all voters, regardless of whether they had requested them; ban using tents, garages, mobile units or any temporary structure as a polling location; further limit who could vote absentee; and add new identification requirements for voting by mail.

Partisan poll watchers would also have more access and autonomy under the bill’s provisions, and election officials could be more harshly punished if they make mistakes or otherwise run afoul of election codes and laws.

The bill, which was hashed out in a closed-door panel of lawmakers, was rushed to the state Senate floor late Saturday. In a legislative power play, the Senate moved to suspend rules that required a bill to be public for 24 hours before a final vote, and set debate for the bill to begin at 10 p.m. local time.

The Texas House did not move to suspend the rules, and is likely to vote on the bill today. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, is widely expected to sign the bill.

Texas is one of several Republican-led states — including Iowa, Georgia and Florida — that have moved since the 2020 presidential contest to pass new laws governing elections and restricting voting.

In a statement Saturday, President Joe Biden called the proposed law, along with similar measures in Georgia and Florida, “an assault on democracy” that disproportionately targeted “Black and Brown Americans.” He called on lawmakers to address the issue by passing Democratic voting bills that are pending in Congress. “It’s wrong and un-american,” Biden said.

The final 67-page bill, known as SB 7, included many of the provisions originally introduced by Republicans, but dropped some of the most stringent ones, like a regulation on the allocation of voting machines that would have led to the closure of polling places in communities of color and a measure that would have permitted partisan poll watchers to record the voting process on video.

ERIC GAY AP A group opposing new voter legislation gathers at the Texas Capitol in Austin on May 6. Texas Republicans on Saturday finalized a sweeping bill that would restrict voter access.