Texas Democrats Block Bill Restricting Voting Rights

Texas Democrats blocked a Republican effort to restrict voting over the weekend when they walked out of the state’s Capitol Building in Austin late Sunday night. The move left Republicans short of the minimum number of lawmakers required to vote and killed the bill for the current legislative session but not indefinitely. Texas Governor Greg Abbot is deeply disappointed that the voting bill didn’t reach his desk and told residents he would call a special session for lawmakers to talk about the issue. Sunday night, Democrats left the floor after several hours of heated debates from both sides of the aisle which included Republicans refusing to take questions from Democrats about the bill.

The bill would have banned drive-through voting and 24 hour voting. According to voting rights advocates, both those measures made voting more accessible to African American and Latino voters during the 2020 elections. It would have also barred early voting on Sundays before 1 p.m. and made it easier to overturn election results as courts would have been allowed to overthrow results if so many ballots were cast illegally. Similar bills have been presented in Florida, Georgia and other Republican controlled states.