Voting

The Texas House Democratic Caucus moved some meetings with advocates online after a handful of representatives in Washington tested positive for the virus. Members are also following protocols like wearing masks.

Whose voices will be heard in Texas halls of power? That question beats at the heart of the Democratic quorum break that has brought the Legislature to a halt and focused national attention on GOP efforts to make voting in Texas harder.

In an interview with the Standard, the governor says he’ll call “special session after special session” until the Republican-backed legislation passes.

While Democrats were in Washington, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 1, one of the sweeping voting bills House members are blocking from passage.

Two priority bills for Texas Republicans — Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3 — would ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting, makes mail-in voting more difficult, increase criminal penalties for voting mistakes, and give partisan poll watchers more authority at voting sites.

Authors of the legislation are moving to ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting options, enhance access for partisan poll watchers and prohibit local election officials from proactively distributing applications to request mail-in ballots.

Rogers captured national attention in March 2020 when he waited for hours to vote on Super Tuesday.

The latest bills contain many measures from a past failed legislative effort that voting rights groups say would make it harder to vote in Texas.

Abbott also listed restrictions on transgender student athletes and restoring funding to the Legislative branch after he vetoed it on the special session agenda.

Democrats also hope national attention on Texas could persuade Congress to pass new federal voting rights laws.

“There’s now no problem with the state adopting restrictive voting rules where the burden falls disproportionately on voters of particular racial or ethnic minority groups,” says Steve Vladeck of the University of Texas School of Law.

Texas Democrats last month staged a dramatic walkout that successfully — if temporarily — blocked Republicans from passing a restrictive voting measure for the state.