Texas Senate PASSES final version of Republican voting bill and sends it to Gov. Abbott's desk for signature
The Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of voting laws on Tuesday, after weeks of delay as Democratic lawmakers fled the state to avoid voting on the measure.
It means the legislation must now go to Governor Greg Abbott, who said he will sign the bill - the latest part of a national GOP push to tighten voting restrictions.
This summer Texas Democrats turned it into the most protracted fight in the US over new voting legislation.
Democrats twice walked out of the state Capitol to temporarily bock the bill, including a 38-day holdout in one of the longest quorum breaks in Texas history.
More than 50 Texas House lawmakers fled the state in July for Washington DC on private jets.
Enough have since returned to fill Texas's 100-person mandate for a quorum, but those continuing to hold out have said they felt betrayed by their colleagues.
The bill's most recent passage through the two chambers of the state legislature is a victory for Abbott and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who drew up 52 arrest warrants for missing Democrats on August 10.
Speaker of the House Dade Phelan listens as the Texas House debates SB 1, a Republican-led measure that would tighten voting procedures in Texas
The bill's passage through the state House is a huge win for Governor Greg Abbott, who has vowed to sign the measure when it gets to his desk
The measure would limit how and when voters can cast a ballot in booming and fast-changing Texas, where decades of commanding Republican victories on Election Day are starting to shrink.
Many of the most hotly contested changes would eliminate expanded voting access that Texas' largest county, Harris County, put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harris County, which includes Houston and is a major source of Democratic votes, offered 24-hour polling places, drive-thru voting and tried sending mail-ballot applications to 2 million registered voters last year.
All of that would now be outlawed under the bill heading to Abbott.
Texas State Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Kerrville, answers questions of fellow lawmakers as they debate voting bill SB1 in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Republicans say criticism of the bill's impacts are exaggerated and emphasize it would add an extra hour of early voting daily, as well as expand the number of counties that must offer 12 hours of early voting on weekdays.
The House approved the package after removing a bipartisan provision to avoid prosecuting voters with felony convictions who were unaware they couldn´t cast a ballot.
The rebuffed proposal followed backlash to the illegal voting arrests of two Texans who said they did not realize the law prohibits people on parole, probation or supervised released from voting.
Both voters are black, which intensified criticism amid a broader fight over voting restrictions that opponents say disproportionately impact people of color.
New rules would have required judges to clearly explain voting prohibitions upon sentencing.
No other last-minute changes were made to the sweeping GOP elections bill.
FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, voters deliver their ballots to a polling station in Tempe, Ariz. An Associated Press investigation has found county election officials throughout Arizona have identified fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud from last year's presidential election that require review by local prosecutors. The findings undermine claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies that widespread fraud is to blame for his loss in Arizona. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
Crystal Mason was sentenced to five years in prison for voting in the 2016 presidential election when she was on probation.
In July, Hervis Rogers was arrested on charges of illegal voting because he cast a ballot while still on parole after waiting more than six hours in line during the 2020 presidential primary.
The cases drew national attention and angered critics who saw both as overzealous attempts by Republicans to look tough on rare cases of improper voting. The Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.
Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain, who had carried the sweeping voting bill in the House earlier this year, said he supported the amendment to clarify the voting rules for those with felony convictions to ensure that 'people that do innocent things' are not harmed for past mistakes.
The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court decided two weeks ago that the Democratic lawmakers who fled in order to delay passage of election security legislation can be arrested and brought to the state House of Representatives.
Abbott and Phelan acted as plaintiffs in the case.
The unanimous ruling overturns a county judge's restraining order blocking their arrest, the third attempt by a lower court to shield the state representatives.
In his opinion, Justice Jimmy Blacklock insisted the ruling doesn't have to do with whether arresting the absent members is a 'good idea' or if the voting legislation they're avoiding is 'desirable.'
More than 50 Texas House Democrats fled the state for Washington, DC on July 12 to avoid voting on the election security bill
Numerous members still remained in DC as of August. In this file photo taken on August 6th, Texas State Democratic Representative Trey Martinez Fischer speaks outside the US Capitol
The Texas Supreme Court's decision means that state lawmakers who are arrested can be compelled to return to the State House floor
'Those are political questions far outside the scope of the judicial function. The legal question before this Court concerns only whether the Texas Constitution gives the House of Representatives the authority to physically compel the attendance of absent members. We conclude that it does,' Blacklock wrote.
In deciding that Texas's constitution grants the House the power to 'compel the attendance of absent members,' the opinion points out that the phrase literally means 'a physical state of being.'
'Although arrest of absent members may seem an extreme step to some observers, the fact remains that if the absent members are sufficiently motivated to resist, the quorum-forcing authority given by the constitution to the present members can only be effectuated by physical compulsion,' the justice concluded.
The Texas attorney general's office posted on Twitter in support of the decision and ripped the missing Democrats.
'As predicted, the law is on our side. House Democrats were elected to do a job - and it is time for them to come home and do just that, regardless if the outcome doesn’t lean in their favor,' the post read.
'Childish antics will not be tolerated.'
The decision was approved after the Texas House voted 80-12 to move forward with the arrests for absent members, which enabled Phelan to issue the warrants. It's the second time that such a vote has been taking during the quorum-bust.