Opinion: The most ominous part of Texas' voter suppression move
If you cherish US democracy, you should be outraged by what's just happened in Washington, DC, and Texas. In the US Senate, Republicans managed to block a bill to launch an independent inquiry into the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol. And in Texas, the GOP is on the verge of enacting new restrictive voting measures -- expected to become law Monday -- that not only would make it harder for people of color to vote, but would alarmingly make it easier for Texas judges to overturn election results -- something Donald Trump was unable to do after he lost the 2020 election.
Saturday, President Joe Biden raised alarm bells about the proposed Texas law, bluntly calling it "un-American," and saying it's "part of an assault on democracy that we've seen far too often this year -- and often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans." President Biden is 100% correct.
Let's not play games -- the new Texas law isn't about "voter integrity." The 2020 election in Texas, which Trump won by more than 630,000 votes, "was smooth and secure," as one of Texas's top election officials testified this earlier year. Even Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott admitted at a news conference in March he was unaware of any voter fraud in the 2020 election.
No, the law is about Texas GOP leaders freaking out after seeing that battleground states such as Georgia and Arizona went for Biden in 2020. Their fear of losing power has incited them to champion sweeping measures limiting in-person voting hours and making it harder to vote by mail. As a practical matter, that's more likely to suppress the votes of Black and brown people, who overwhelmingly voted Democratic last year.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-the-most-ominous-part-of-texas-voter-suppression-move/ar-AAKxJn4
