Voting restrictions pass in Texas House with Republican support

AUSTIN, Texas — Defying a monthslong Democratic protest, the Texas House on Friday passed wide-ranging voting restrictions that opponents say will make casting ballots and administering elections harder in the state.

Elections bill SB1 passed 80-41 mostly along party lines, with one Republican voting against the measure. Democrats — who broke quorum for weeks, fled Texas and faced the threat of arrest to stave off passage of the measure this summer — did not have the numbers to overcome the chamber’s GOP majority.

The House’s passage of the measure is a victory for Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and the latest example of Republican state legislators adopting voting restrictions in the wake of the 2020 election. Proponents of the bills argue voting rules should be tightened to prevent voter fraud, echoing baseless claims by former president Donald Trump and his supporters that the last election was tainted by irregularities.

Democrats and voting-rights advocates argue that proposals such as SB1 use the false specter of voter fraud to create hurdles that undermine the right to vote, particularly for voters of color. The Texas bill restricts methods of voting, tightens the rules around mail ballots, empowers partisan poll-watchers and creates new rules and penalties for mistakes by election officials and people helping others vote.

Democratic leaders slammed the legislation and argued that their weeks of quorum-breaking had helped push federal legislators to action.

“This bill was never about election security or voter integrity. It was always about using the Big Lie to justify restricting access to the ballot box,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner said in a statement. “From the very beginning of this fight, we knew we wouldn’t be able to hold off this bill forever. That’s why federal voter protection legislation is essential.”

Abbott had earlier celebrated the bill advancing through the House, tweeting that “this legislation will make our elections process fair & uniform.”

The state Senate will now need to confer on the House version, which could take place Friday afternoon. If Senators agree to the House’s amendments, the bill will go to Abbott to be signed into law.

Democrats argued passionately against the bill on Friday and on Thursday night, as a number of amendments to the measure were debated.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson spoke on the House floor on Friday about watching her grandmother save pennies and nickels from her $2-a-week paycheck so she could pay the poll tax to vote. Her first-grade classmate, Alma Allen, passed legislation that eliminated the poll tax in Texas in 1966, Thompson said.

“Make no mistake. This is your bill, your idea, and you will be responsible for the consequences,” Thompson said. “You will reap what you sow. And you know what, it won’t be years or decades from now. It will be sooner than you think.”

Rep. Andrew Murr, a Republican, has defended his bill, arguing that it “contains language by both Republicans and Democrats” and “demonstrates that all viewpoints have been and are being considered, regardless of party affiliation.”

The legislation aims to make elections “uniform and consistent throughout this state to reduce the likelihood of fraud … protect the secrecy of the ballot, promote voter access and ensure that all legally cast ballots are counted,” he said Monday.

Republicans have rushed to pass the bill since last week, when a handful of returning Democrats helped them reestablish a quorum in the House.

The vote was a defeat for Democrats, who had stalled the bill’s progress with multiple walkouts starting in May.

The party’s July quorum-break involved nearly 60 members leaving Texas for Washington, where they spent weeks advocating for federal-voting rights protections on Capitol Hill. Some of those lawmakers returned to Texas this month, hiding from law enforcement to avoid Republican-ordered arrests to compel their return to the state capitol.

The protest prompted Abbott to call a second special session that can last through Sept. 5.

As the House debated amendments to the bill late into Thursday night, several Democrats stayed away from the House floor. For those who returned, tensions with Republicans ran high.

Early in the day, Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, asked members not to use the word “racism” in their remarks, prompting anger among Democrats. Voting-rights advocates slammed Phelan for trying to censor language in the debate.

“Speaker Phelan may not want to acknowledge that SB1 is rooted in a long, racist tradition of voter suppression in Texas,” Sarah Labowitz, policy and advocacy director with the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. “But the racist impacts of the bill speak for themselves.”