After Texas Voting Bill’s Passage, Democrats Hold Out For Federal Help That May Never Come – Houston Public Media
Texas Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington, center, speaks as he stands with fellow Democratic Party members after a break on the opening day of a special session, Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Austin, Texas.
Friday’s vote on a GOP-backed electoral bill in the Texas House of Representatives was a formality: Senate Act 1, which would add new restrictions on voting and which was criticized by its opponents as an attempt to suppress voters, had enough votes to run in the Republican controlled legislature.
Democrats blocked similar laws twice, first with a strike during the regular session and then by traveling to Washington DC during the first special session. There they asked Congress to adopt federal electoral protection.
Before the vote, Dallas Democratic MP Rafael Anchia reiterated that call to action – saying the fate of Texas voters is now in the hands of federal lawmakers.
“There is an opportunity to crack down on federal laws that protect voting rights not only for millions of Texans but for millions of Americans as well,” Anchia said.
But the likelihood of this is slim: Currently, the US Senate regulations require 60 members to pass such laws. In a split Senate with no Republican support for the bill, the move is likely to come to nothing, leaving the Texas Democrats with few options.
Despite efforts to change this 60-vote rule, it’s not clear whether efforts to eliminate it will actually be successful, according to Michael O. Adams, professor of political science at the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs from Texas Southern University.
Two Senate Democrats – Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – oppose any change in the chamber’s vocal threshold. And so far, President Biden has remained silent on the matter, so that most political experts conclude that the last hope of the Texan Democrats is dead.
“You can talk about it being a setback for Jim Crow,” said Adams. “But even here you have to get up and say, ‘Break the filibuster, come over and support this law.’ And we didn’t see the President do that. “
Adams and others are quick to point out that the state Democrats who broke the quorum shaped the franchise talk when they fled the state for Washington, DC in July. There they met with Vice President Kamala Harris and other federal lawmakers, but were unable to arrange a meeting with the president himself.
Still, the day after their arrival, Biden reached out to the nation with a speech in support of the now stalled Bill for the People – a bill that would push through sweeping reforms, including expanding voter registration, postal voting, and early options Choice . Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a prominent critic of the For The People Act, who blocked a vote on the law for procedural reasons earlier this month, called it a “federal government takeover.”
House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Orange, hits his gavel as the House of Representatives votes on an amendment to the SB1 electoral law on Thursday, August 26, 2021, in Austin, Texas.
But any hope in the president’s movement to protect voters at the federal level stalled last week, Adams said: The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the deaths of at least 13 US soldiers in the Taliban’s fight to retake the country have all been won Talks about electoral reform overshadowed.
It’s also less likely that Biden would move forward with any push to change Senate rules, as the controversial withdrawal has consumed some of his political capital, Adams said.
“Given the falling polls and the events in Afghanistan, I don’t see that on the radar,” he said. “There are many even Democrats who are starting to distance themselves from the president (last) week because they will be in very tight election campaigns next year.”
Critics say SB 1, the Texas electoral law, is introducing new barriers to entry for voters. Among other things, it prohibits 24-hour voting and drive-through voting.
Both guidelines were enacted by Harris County ahead of the 2020 election, and election officials say they are a big reason the county saw record turnouts. They were also disproportionately used by colored voters: 53% of drive-thru voters were colored people and 56% of those who used the 24-hour voting were colored people, according to Chris Hollins, the former Harris County employee helped set the guidelines.
With the quorum break, movement in the bill stalled until the Democrats’ return two weeks ago. Prior to the House vote, House Democratic Chairman Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, again criticized the bill as an attempt to stifle voter turnout in the state, while reiterating calls for federal action.
“Congress and the administration are watching because they know what’s at stake,” said Turner. “They know because we’ve told them a lot over the past few weeks that they must act to protect voters from the regressive policies in this bill and other laws like this one that are being introduced and enacted across the country. And when you have all passed this bill, in a few minutes you will be able to prove to us that we are right. “
The House of Representatives finally approved SB 1 on Friday with a vote of 80 to 41 along the party lines.
One of the lawmakers who voted for the bill, Hillister Republican James White, praised the bill for delivering what he and others have called electoral integrity in the GOP.
“This is a very important bill because it deals with the basic architecture of our people’s government, and that is our voice, which is being expressed through our vote,” White said last week before he passed the KUT in Austin.
Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives attend a press conference after the House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Capitol Hill, Washington on Tuesday, August 24, 2021.
At some point it was inevitable that lawmakers had to come home, according to Melanye Price, professor of political science at Prairie View A&M University and director of the school’s Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice.
Still, Price added, the Democrats have achieved what they set out to do: put public pressure on Congress to intervene.
“It was pretty much a done deal from the start,” said Price. “The math worked, the political will of the political actors was there. And so it was almost a fait accompli to stop the process at least for a while and also register their dissatisfaction. And I think these things should be praised. “
SB 1 will almost certainly go to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk, where it is expected to be signed quickly – and eventually face legal challenges, according to political experts.
But the outlook for the Democrats there, too, is bleak, with a conservative Texas judiciary and, if challenged in federal court, a Conservative Fifth District Court of Appeals.
The case could also make it to the US Supreme Court, which recently ruled on such laws. The landmark 2013 Supreme Court decision in the Shelby County v. Holder deleted a section of the 1965 Suffrage Act that required some states, including Texas, to obtain federal pre-approval to pass electoral laws.
Since then, the court has only gotten more conservative, which, according to Price, makes the bill less likely to be rejected in court.
“I think it’s a pretty grim prospect to vote for People of Color, for people who have been marginalized, for poor people, for people with disabilities,” she said. “I think all of these people will have a hard time voting in the years to come.”
If there is a silver lining, Price said, then politics that have been criticized as racist has often been a motivator for political engagement in the past – when people are able to overcome the barriers themselves.
“One of the things we know is that this stimulates activity, but the willingness to participate must be a means of overcoming the obstacles,” she said. “And these obstacles are many.”
Additional coverage by Bret Jaspers from KUT in Austin.
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