State Senate Passage of new restrictive Texas voting bill follows U.S. Senate Republicans – led by Senator Ted Cruz – blocking federal voting rights legislation
Following the U.S. Senate Republicans’ filibuster of the For the People Act and other important government reform bills led by Senator Ted Cruz early yesterday morning, the Texas state Senate today passed new voting restrictions. The new legislation bans drive-in and 24 hour voting–which at least 127,000 voters used in the 2020 election; sets new, burdensome requirements for absentee voting; restricts campaign activities used to encourage people to vote; gives more power to partisan poll-watchers; and puts harsh penalties on the patriotic citizens who work to run our elections. This bill is part of a sustained, partisan attack on voting rights to limit the freedom to vote, especially for Black and brown Americans, the disabled, younger voters and low-income voters.
“Texas’ new un-American anti-voting bill is a danger to democracy that could disenfranchise tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Texas voters,” said End Citizens United // Let America Vote President Tiffany Muller. “It is clear that Republicans’ partisan attack on voting rights will continue unless the Senate steps in and passes the For the People Act to protect every American’s freedom to vote and counteracts these measures in Texas and the litany of anti-voting bills being advanced across the country. We cannot let Senate procedure stand in the way of protecting Americans’ fundamental right to vote.”
Texas is already among the most difficult states in the country to vote in. Since the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder that gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Texas has closed at least 750 polling locations, the most of any state. Those closed polling sites were disproportionately in Black and brown neighborhoods. In the 2020 election, Texas ranked 44th in voter turnout out of all 50 states.
This year alone, state legislators nationwide have introduced over 400 bills that included restrictive voting proposals; 30 of these bills have become laws in 18 states.
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