Dems walk, stop Texas GOP's sweeping voting restrictions
Source: AP
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) A restrictive voting bill in Texas that was on the verge of Republican Gov. Greg Abbotts desk failed to pass Sunday night after Democrats walked out of the House chamber before a midnight deadline.
Abbott swiftly said he would call a special session to try passing a voting bill again but did not say when.
We've said for so many years that we want more people to participate in our democracy. And it just seems that's not the case, Democratic state Rep. Carl Sherman said.
The bill known as Senate Bill 7 would have imposed a raft of election changes that eliminate drive-thru voting, empower partisan poll watchers and impose new requirements in order to cast a ballot by mail in Texas, which already has some of toughest voting laws in the nation.
Read more: https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Dems-walk-stop-Texas-GOP-s-sweeping-voting-16214234.php
Link: Midland Reporter-Telegram
LetMyPeopleVote
(144,919 posts)TexasTowelie
(111,931 posts)However, the governor hasn't set a date and I believe that we still have to wait for the census data to arrive for redistricting so we get some delay and might be able to stretch things out longer--at least until the U.S. Senate can take up voting rights in June.
LetMyPeopleVote
(144,919 posts)Cha
(296,812 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(144,919 posts)dalton99a
(81,391 posts)Cha
(296,812 posts)ananda
(28,834 posts)Well, everywhere really.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,517 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,738 posts)Texas Democrats staged a dramatic walkout in the state House late Sunday night to block passage of a restrictive voting bill that would have been one of the most stringent in the nation, forcing Republicans to abruptly adjourn without taking a vote on the measure.
The surprise move came after impassioned late-night debate and procedural objections about the GOP-backed legislation, which would have made it harder to vote by mail, empowered partisan poll watchers and made it easier to overturn election results. Republicans faced a midnight deadline to approve the measure.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) tweeted that he would add the bill to a special session he plans to call later this year to address legislative redistricting. Legislators will be expected to have worked out the details when they arrive at the Capitol for the special session, he wrote.
But it was an unmistakable defeat for the governor and fellow Republicans, who had crafted one of the most far-reaching voting bills in the country pushing restrictions championed by former president Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed that his defeat in the 2020 election was tainted by fraud.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/texas-voting-restrictions/2021/05/30/51dfa134-c140-11eb-93f5-ee9558eecf4b_story.html
msongs
(67,357 posts)Cha
(296,812 posts)Salviati
(6,008 posts)Rhiannon12866
(204,719 posts)Kudos to the Texas Democrats for showing how it's done and standing up for the voters!
betsuni
(25,376 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,441 posts)I know that it only delays and doesn't torpedo the Jim Crow bill right away given the "special session" option thing, but I remember when Democrats in Wisconsin did the same regarding the anti-union "Card check" crap in their State Legislature under Walker - and that was 10 years ago!
February 17, 2011 4:26 PM ET
NPR Staff and Wires
A group of Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin blocked passage of a sweeping anti-union bill Thursday by ignoring orders to attend a vote. Instead, they left the state to force Republicans to negotiate over the proposal. As ever-growing throngs of protesters filled the Capitol for a third day, the 14 Democrats disappeared from the grounds. They were not in their offices, and aides said they did not know where any of them had gone. A state police search is under way.
Hours later, one Democrat told The Associated Press that the group had left Wisconsin. Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Democrats fled to delay consideration of the bill in the hopes that Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers would discuss changes. "The plan is to try and slow this down, because it's an extreme piece of legislation that's tearing this state apart," Erpenbach told AP in a telephone interview.
He refused to say where he was. Other Democratic lawmakers sent messages over Twitter and issued written statements, but did not say where they were. Walker, who took office last month, has made the bill a top priority. He urged the group to return and called the boycott a "stunt." "It's more about theatrics than anything else," Walker said, predicting that the group would come back in a day or two, after realizing "they're elected to do a job."
Walker said Democrats could still offer amendments to change the bill, but he vowed not to concede on his plan to end most collective bargaining rights. Republicans hold a 19-14 majority in the state Senate, but they need at least one Democrat to be present before taking a vote on the bill. Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman called it an extreme move, both by his Democratic colleagues and the teachers supporting them.
https://www.npr.org/2011/02/17/133847336/wis-democratic-lawmakers-flee-to-prevent-vote
Maxheader
(4,370 posts)Instead of trying to understand why they lost, ....
Jilly_in_VA
(9,941 posts)sounds a lot like what happened in the Wisconsin legislature some years ago when the Democrats, led by their then minority leader, walked out so the Repugs wouldn't have a quorum for some funny business they were trying to pull. They went across the state line to Illinois. IIRC the Speaker of the House tried to send the sheriff after them but he was a Democrat and wouldn't go. Then he tried to send the Capitol police, but they didn't have any jurisdiction. The governor of Illinois supported the Democrats of Wisconsin. It was hilarious. I knew the Democratic Minority Leader and a couple of other members. They never did give in.
summer_in_TX
(2,706 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,738 posts)Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday he would withhold pay from Texas lawmakers by vetoing the section of the state budget that funds their paychecks.
His announcement comes just hours after Texas Democrats walked out of the House, breaking quorum, and blocking the possibility of a vote before a midnight deadline. "I will veto Article 10 of the budget passed by the legislature. Article 10 funds the legislative branch. No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities," Abbott tweeted Monday afternoon. "Stay tuned."
Link to tweet
The Democratic walk-out was a last-ditch effort to block the passage of a controversial, restrictive voting law that would make it much harder for some Texans to vote. The elections bill, which has already passed the Texas Senate, would make it harder to vote absentee, ban drive-through and 24-hour voting, pump up punishments for election official errors or offenses, and grant more power to poll watchers.
"Democrats in the House and Senate in Texas have been working all session long to kill these Republican vote suppression measures. And Senate Bill 7 was the worst of the worst," Texas House Minority Leader Chris Turner, a Democrat, told CNN on Monday. "And so we were determined to kill this bill in any way we could."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-gov-greg-abbott-threatens-to-withhold-lawmaker-pay-after-dems-block-voting-bill/ar-AAKzH4E