DEMOCRATS IN TEXAS LEAVE THE STATE FOR WASHINGTON D.C.

 

    …Texas Democrats leaving the state for Washington D.C. on a chartered plane

 

By leaving Texas, the Democrats remove a quorum for passing restrictive voting bills

 

Democrats in the Texas Legislature left the state for Washington, D.C..  This is a second revolt by the Texas Democrats against a GOP overhaul of election laws.  It is another dramatic showdown over voting rights in America.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers left Austin before the GOP could pass a voting bill in the current special legislative session ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. 

By leaving just days after Abbott convened a special legislative session, Democrats would again deny the GOP majority a quorum to pass bills.  This is barely a month after their walkout in the state House of Representatives thwarted the first push for sweeping new voting restrictions in Texas.  This includes outlawing 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes and empowering partisan poll watchers. The decision to hole up in Washington is aimed at ratcheting up pressure in the nation’s capital on President Joe Biden and Congress to act on voting rules at a federal level.

It would mark the first time since 2003 that Texas Democrats, shut out of power in the state Capitol for decades, have crossed state lines to break a quorum.

This drastic move lays bare how Democrats are making America’s biggest Red state their last stand against the GOP’s rush to enact new voting restrictions.  This is in response to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.  More than a dozen states this year have already passed tougher election voting laws.  But only in Texas have Democrats put up this kind of fight.

Over the weekend, Texas Republicans began advancing new election bills in the Legislature that also bring back provisions to ban drive-thru voting, add new voter ID requirements to absentee ballots and prohibit local elections officials from proactively sending mail-in ballot applications to voters.

A first key vote on the new measures had been expected this week.  This hastened Democrats’ scramble to leave town.

But this time it could carry more risk, and is still no guarantee of victory in the long run.

Governor Abbott, who is up for reelection in 2022 and has demanded new election laws in Texas.  He could keep calling 30-day special sessions until a bill is passed. He also punished Democrats after their May walkout by vetoing paychecks for roughly 2,000 Capitol employees, which will begin taking effect in September unless the Legislature is in session to restore the funding.  In other words, many innocent Capital employees may be punished because of the governor’s actions.

Staying away and grinding the Legislature to a halt for an extended time could also carry repercussions in next year’s midterm elections, although many Texas Democrats are already expecting a difficult cycle in 2022. This is particularly with the Republicans set to begin drawing new voting maps this fall that could cement their majorities.

Adding to this fresh anger, a Houston man who gained attention last year after waiting more than six hours to cast a ballot but was arrested in illegal voting changes and put in jail one day before the special session began.  Attorneys for Hervis Rogers say the 62-year-old did not know that his being on parole for a felony burglary conviction meant he wasn’t allowed to vote.  But Mr. Rogers is now being threatened with 40 years in jail for his mistaken vote.

How Republicans respond next will be a major test of their resolve.

Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan told Austin television station KXAN last week that “all options are on the table” if Democrats revolt a second time, but he did not elaborate.  

When Democrats last fled the state two decades ago, in an ultimately failed attempt to stop new GOP-drawn voting maps, state troopers were deployed to try bringing them back.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, the author of both GOP attempts to pass election changes in Texas, said over the weekend that the legislation had become “bitterly partisan.” He defended the new version, which does leave out his contentious attempts to ban Sunday morning early voting but it makes it easier for judges to overturn an election.

“Your ballot is sacrosanct,” Hughes said while introducing the bill Saturday “Everything else in the election process should be bathed in sunshine.”  But Hughes is being two-faced because his bill does everything against the appropriate election process.

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris announced $25 million in new spending by the Democratic National Committee on actions to protect voting access ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Biden and his team are stressing ongoing legal efforts to safeguard voting rights. They’ve also promised a major legislative push after Senate Republicans blocked a sweeping election overhaul last month. The president has told reporters he plans on “speaking extensively” on voting rights and that he would be “going on the road on this issue.”  President Biden has yet to say what he might sponsor from a federal level for supporting rules for future elections regarding those states that are adding more restrictions to the voting process.

The Texas Republicans have also said they may authorize the Texas Rangers to arrest the Democrats that have left the state to stop the state from voting on the proposed bills.

It is appearing that as usual, unless something can be done on the federal level, the Republicans will once again get their way inside the Lone Star State for more restrictions against the voting process.

This another example of the Republicans being supportive of the former president's idea of the U.S. being an authoritative nation, not a democratic nation.

Copyright G. Ater 2021