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The Texas Senate passed a Republican-backed voting bill after Democratic House members fled the state in order to block a final House vote.
Senators voted 18-4 along party lines to approve the legislation. Eight Senate Democrats announced that they too had fled to Washington, D.C., on Monday, with a ninth expected to arrive Monday evening. However, with 22 out of 31 members present, the Senate kept a quorum and was able to pass the measure.
“This bill is about making it both easy to vote and harder to cheat,” Republican state senator Bryan Hughes, who authored the bill, told reporters. Hughes said criticism of the bill stemmed from a “horrible, misleading, false national debate coming out of Washington.”
State Democrats have accused Republicans of attempting to suppress voting rights.
“Texas Senate Democrats decided to take matters into their own hands in order to secure the voting rights of Texans…and work with our partners at the federal level to pass voting rights legislation that would rein in discriminatory voter suppression laws and unfair redistricting practices,” the nine senators who fled to Washington said in a statement. --->READ MORE HERE
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday said the Democratic lawmakers who left the state earlier that day to deny Republicans a quorum to convene a special legislative session and consider a sweeping elections reform bill will be arrested upon their return to the Lone Star State.
A majority of Texas House Democrats fled the state on a charter flight bound for Washington, D.C., on Monday in an effort to stop the passage of a measure that would overhaul the state’s election procedures, in addition to other controversial priorities backed by Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), during a special legislative session.
Members of the caucus carried out a similar effort in May, staging a walkout from the state House floor late one night to block the passage of the elections procedures bill, which would have restricted access to the ballot box.
The bill called for new limits on early voting and curbside voting, banned round-the-clock voting centers and voting facilities in outdoor structures like parking garages, eliminated straight-ticket voting and limited the use of drop boxes. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
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Abbott: TX Dems ‘Using a Filibuster to Flee’ So They Can ‘Plead with the President to Do Away with the Filibuster’
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