The “election integrity” bill touted by Republicans seeks to expand the power of partisan poll watchers, which could also facilitate voter harassment and intimidation
In May, on the final day of this year’s regular legislative session, Democrats walked out of the Texas House, denying Republicans the quorum they needed to pass the bill, or any other . Mr Abbott responded by vowing to summon the legislators back for a special session to tackle the issue, and to veto funding for the legislative branch of state government in the meantime.
Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature by healthy margins. If Congress remains unmoved by the pleas of the refugees to pass a new federal voting law, the Democratic state lawmakers will soon find themselves in an awkward limbo, counting down the days until the special session ends on August 7th, with no clear plan after that point. “We are living on borrowed time,” a group of Democratic leaders said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in Austin, Republicans are fuming. “As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested,” Mr Abbott declared on a local news station . “They will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done.” He also vowed to call as many special sessions as necessary until the end of next year to ensure that the legislation is passed.
Stopping the state legislature from functioning in the name of saving democracy puts Mr Walle and his Democratic colleagues on tricky ground. There is precedent for quorom-breaking flights, but breaking one norm to save another one requires a weighing of relative damage.
The current version of the bill is better. A couple of provisions would bar innovations that Houston’s Harris County pioneered last year . These proved popular and worked well, but banning them would be failing to encourage voting rather than suppressing it. However the bill also seeks to expand the power of partisan poll watchers, which could facilitate voter harassment and intimidation.
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