Texas Capitol Republicans Pass Reform That Restricts Voting Rights | International

Texas Congressional Republicans were successful in pushing through electoral law reform that restricts the right to vote on Tuesday. Democrats tried for months to block the bill from going forward in the Republican-controlled state Capitol. Now all that’s missing is the signature of Governor Greg Abbott, who has already announced he will support the law banning 24-hour polling centers, imposes new requirements for postal voting and toughens the conditions for it. identify, among several measures. US President Joe Biden has previously called the move an “attack on democracy.”

The bill “will boost confidence in our election outcome by facilitating voting and fraud,” Abbott said in a statement Tuesday after the bill’s final approval by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State. With this reform, Texas is joining a Republican campaign to block voting in elections under the pretext of increasing security. Georgia, Florida and Arizona are among a dozen conservative states that have passed restrictive laws since the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump continues to shake the specter that the election that won Biden was fraudulent .

Democrats tried in various ways to block the vote. On more than one occasion, members of Congress have left Capitol Hill – and the state – to leave Republicans without the quorum necessary to pass the bills. Civil rights activists have also led a campaign to stop reform, which they say is particularly damaging to the participation of racial minorities and young people in electoral processes. The bill prevents counties from mailing ballots if they are not requested by the potential voter, even those over 65, who automatically qualify to vote by mail. It also restricts early voting hours and vehicle voting.

Texas’ population has grown by more than four million over the past decade, an increase greater than that of any other state. People who do not identify as white represent more than nine in ten new residents. This demographic tends to favor Democrats at the polls.

The conservative stronghold is already one of the states with the most restrictive election laws, but Harris County (the greater Houston area of ​​4.6 million people) has become increasingly democratic. The new regulations point to this territory, blame those of Biden’s party. In the presidential election, when Harris County registered a record number of early votes, Gov. Abbott desperately ordered that only one mailbox be left for voting instead of the planned 12. After Biden was named the winner, the Texas attorney general filed a lawsuit to overturn the election results of four key states in Trump’s defeat – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – but the Supreme Court l ‘rejected.

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