Dramatic democrat walk-out foils Texas voting system overhaul

Austin, May 31, 2021: Democrats in the Texas legislature utilized a dramatic walk out late Sunday to destroy Republican designs for a restrictive voting bill that President Joe Biden had earlier criticized as voter suppression and an “assault on democracy.”

The law would among other changes make mail-in voting more difficult by requiring voters to give extra information, bar local officials from sending absentee ballot applications to anyone who did not request one, and end after-hours and drive-through voting. Supporters say Senate Bill 7 is designed to make voting more secure, but critics say it aims to make it more cumbersome for ethnic-minority voters, who tend to vote Democrat.

Be that as it may, the bill could yet make it into law. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said after its loss that he would call a special session to get it through the council.

At about 10.45 pm Sunday, as the bill was examined on the floor of the State House, the Democratic members withdrew the chamber as a group, leaving the body shy of the necessary 100 individuals in participation to pass anything.

Local media reported that House Democratic Caucus chair Chris Turner sparked the exodus by texting all members to say: “Take your key and leave the chamber discretely. Do not go to the gallery. Leave the building.”

The meeting was then deferred, finishing any expectations of the bill passing in this legislative term.

However, Abbott, a Republican who backs the political decision changes, raised the chance of a special session to push them through.

“Election Integrity & Bail Reform were emergency items for this legislative session. They STILL must pass, they will be added to the special session agenda.” In a tweet, Texas House Republicans decried the walk-out. “The Texas House Republican Caucus condemns the actions of their colleagues in the Texas House who chose to vacate their Constitutional responsibility and leave millions of Texans without resolution on key issues in the final hours of the legislative session,” they said.

Conservatives say the bill is expected to take off election fraud as guaranteed by Donald Trump in his rehashed bogus declarations that he beat Biden last November and that the official political race was taken from him.

Since that political race, numerous Republican majority states have taken up charges that make casting a ballot more difficult.

Georgia, which traditionally votes Republican but sided with Biden in November, was among the first to adopt such a law, in March. Biden on Saturday said the Texas bill was “part of an assault on democracy that we’ve seen far too often this year, and often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans.” Biden has called on Congress to pass two bills designed to protect and favor people’s right to vote without restrictions. Democrats’ slim majority in the legislature has prevented the bills from being passed.

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