Maybe there are a few items on the GOP voting-law dream list that aren't in the current bills. There aren't any Jim-Crow poll taxes. And the most recent bills no longer limit Sunday voting hours to halt "souls to the polls" efforts by Black churches.
But there's still more than enough ugly stuff to prompt the Texas's Democratic legislators to flee to Washington, DC this week to prevent the bills from coming to a vote in Austin.
Here are the restrictions that both the House and Senate GOP agree the voting bill should do:
---Ban drive-thru voting (an innovation by Lina Hidalgo, Houston's celebrated, progressive, young county executive)
---Ban 24-hour voting by setting time constraints
---Prevent county election officials from sending absentee ballot applications to any voter who has not requested one
---Require partisan poll watchers to be allowed "free movement" to observe election activities at polling sites and central vote counting areas (That is, allow GOP poll watchers to intimidate voters at the polls -- and yes, there's an article citing one GOP official who said that out loud)
-- Ban absentee ballot drop boxes, requiring voters to mail in completed absentee ballots or deliver them to an election official
---Require a person requesting an absentee ballot to provide a driver's license number or Social Security number to get one
---Ban vote harvesting, defined as a third-party group helping a voter fill out absentee ballots in order to benefit a specific candidate
The Senate version adds these:
---Authorizes state election officials to compare Department of Public Safety driving records with voter rolls to find potential noncitizen voters
--- Requires any person who transports three or more voters other than family members to the polls to fill out a form (imagine filling out a form just to drive three friends to the polls!)
Yes, that's plenty too much. Worse, GOP legislators are expected to add multiple additional restrictions during the floor vote.
That's why 51 of the Dems in the Texas lege are fleeing the state, and 16 more are -- well, they're not telling. No quorum, no vote. Hooray for voting rights!
It worked once, in May, when the Democratic legislators walked out rather than vote on the voting bill -- they would have lost to the majority Republicans. Governor Abbott, in response, actually suspended lawmakers' pay for that stunt. (For real!)
In May, there wasn't significant pressure by the House Speaker, Dade Phelan, to rein in the Democratic stampede out the door. This time, he says, “My Democratic colleagues have been quoted saying that all options are on the table. Respectfully, all options are on the table for myself as well.”
He'd have a tough time outdoing the efforts of Congressional Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Ca.), who hired a private investigator to serve a subpoena about the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt to House member Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) less than two months ago.
Huffpo adds, "The walkout [by Texas Democratic lawmakers] is expected to prevent the GOP from progressing bills that would block transgender youth from sports, strengthen cash bail requirements and crack down on access to medication abortion, among a litany of other hotly contested measures."
As of now, the GOP is tut-tutting about how the Democratic lawmakers taking a bus to the airport are NOT WEARING MASKS.
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What should Biden do to attempt to rein in this disastrous state voting bill -- while he also reins in the GOP Senators who are blocking the federal voting bills?
What can voting rights activists do? Texas progressives kept the TX House up literally all night during the comment period on the voting bill. Other progressives stood at the airport with signs and cheered to thank the Democrats on their way to Washington. What else is possible?
Texas increasingly seems to fall under erratic leadership, especially since a power outage during a cold snap in February that killed at least 200 people, including 100 in blue-voting Houston. The governor not only failed to fix the grid in any way, but he recently undercut alternative forms of energy in favor of oil and gas ... excuse me -- a bit worked up here. The question is: Do you ever wonder whether the federal government should take over the state's government? It's not as if Texans haven't been expecting it for decades.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-democrats-leave-state-voting-bill_n_60ec79e4e4b01f1189518a28
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