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TEXAS – Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a new law that puts new hurdles on postal ballots and empowers partisan election observers.
Abbott signed Senate Act No. 1 in Tyler Tuesday, calling it “Texas’s Electoral Integrity Act.” The governor signed the bill, surrounded by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick | and the main authors of the bill, Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola and Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, as well as other Republican lawmakers.
“We are proud to sign Senate Act No. 1, which will uphold the integrity of our Texas elections,” Abbott said in a tweet Tuesday. “This law will make it easier to vote and cheat in the Lone Star State.”
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According to SB1, the new law will ban 24-hour and drive-through voting and limit the times that counties can offer early voting to between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The statement In addition, the districts are prohibited from sending unsolicited applications by post – even to people who are over 65 years of age and therefore automatically qualify for voting by post.
SB1 will establish new rules for absentee voting, increase protections for partisan election observers, and set new limits for those who assist voters, including people with disabilities, with voting.
The Texas electoral law is due to come into force three months after the special session of the legislature, in time for the 2022 primaries.
The restrictive electoral measure will add Texas to the list of Republican-controlled states that have introduced new voting restrictions after the 2020 elections.
In this file photo dated June 8, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference in Austin, Texas. Opponents of a major overhaul of Texas’s Republican election took Governor Greg Abbott to court on Friday, September 3, 2021, before signing amendments to the state’s already strict electoral rules. (AP Photo / Eric Gay, File)
On the same day that Abbott signed the law, three more lawsuits were filed against Texas that found SB1 to be unlawful.
On Friday, the Texas Civil Rights Project, an Austin nonprofit advocating for voter rights, racial and economic justice, and criminal justice reform, filed its own lawsuit against the state for violating the Voting Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and the US violates constitution.
“This illegal bill has no apparent purpose other than to make it harder for certain Texans to vote,” the nonprofit said in a tweet Friday.
On Tuesday the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., Reed Smith LLP, and The ark filed a federal lawsuit against SB1 on behalf of the Houston Area Urban League, Houston Justice, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and The Arc of Texas.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, argues that Sb1 violates the 1st, 14th, and 15th Amendments and Section 2 of the Suffrage Act by “intentionally using the methods and means of voting used targeted and charged “. by colored voters. “
Plaintiffs also allege that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act by imposing electoral barriers, discriminating against voters with disabilities, and denying full and equal opportunities to people with disabilities participate in the country’s election programs.
“The law is essentially anti-democratic and clearly designed to suppress the vote,” said Tina Kingshill, coordinating director of Houston Justice. “It will further limit the voting rights of low-income, colored pre-trial defendants who are unable to post bail, who make up over 70 percent of the local and county prison population.
“By prohibiting the issuance of public funds to facilitate the distribution of election applications by post by third parties, the law burdens non-profit organizations for electoral assistance with the financing of the printing costs of the applications. Many organizations will not have the means to print essentially the right to vote and cast while incarceration is being taken away. “
The League of United Latin American Citizens also filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday following the death of SB1.
LULAC filed the lawsuit in the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas urging declaratory and injunction claims against Texas election officials for “the new election restrictions against the 1st of the color.”
“LULAC firmly opposes this attack on our voting rights and freedoms because they have only one purpose: to water down our vote at the ballot box and continue to stop the election change in Texas,” said Domingo Garcia, National President of LULAC. “Texas voters deserve fair, open, and transparent elections, not a process rigged to deny the right to vote in our growing communities.”
In their motion, the plaintiffs state: “The legislature did not enact SB 1 to preserve the integrity of the elections or to combat electoral fraud, but to curb the growing tide of minority voter participation by repeating the false, repeatedly debunked allegations of the far Widespread voter fraud brought up by supporters weaponized by former President Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election. “
For 38 consecutive days, the Democrats blocked the State Capitol after more than 50 fled to Washington, DC in July to deny Republicans a quorum, which The Associated Press said is required to run the state’s affairs.
After most of the state’s lawmakers returned less than two weeks ago to end the impasse, GOP leaders swiftly got the bill through both houses on Tuesday. Abbott signed the bill immediately.
Texas law, as others proposed this year, creates or extends several criminal violations related to elections, some of which are broad and could ensnare voters or those who help them, AP reports.
Republicans claim these measures are necessary to prevent fraud or undue influence on voters. The Democrats clearly state that electoral fraud is extremely rare.
AP reports that the state’s Republican attorney general has spent millions of dollars on electoral fraud investigations since last year, but only a handful of cases have surfaced in a state where more than 11 million people voted in November.
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