[ad_1]
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to arrest Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an attempt to stop an overhaul of election laws they say undermines the right to vote, especially for communities colored.
Private jets carrying more than 50 Democrats left Austin for Washington DC on Monday, leaving the city just days before the Texas House of Representatives quickly approved new voting restrictions in a special legislative session.
The move deprived the Republican-led legislature of a quorum, leaving too few lawmakers present to conduct business. This means that he could not, at least for now, vote on the bill.
In response, Abbott told an Austin TV station he would simply continue to call special sessions of the legislature until next year if necessary, and raised the possibility that Democrats will be arrested when they return. at their home.
“As soon as they return to the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be locked up in the capital of Texas until they do their job,” Abbott said.
The cross-country exodus was the second time Democratic lawmakers have staged a walkout on the overhaul of the vote, a measure of their staunch opposition to proposals that they say will make it harder for young people, people of color and people to vote. people with disabilities.
But like last month’s effort, there is no clear path left for Democrats to permanently block the voting measures, or a list of other controversial GOP-backed proposals for debate.
Texas bills would ban 24-hour polling stations, ban ballot boxes used to cast postal ballots, and empower supporters of poll observers.
The measures are part of a Republican campaign across America to enact new voting restrictions in response to false claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. More than a dozen states passed stricter election laws this year, but it was only in Texas that Democrats waged that kind of fight.
Texas Democrats, excluded from power in the state capital for decades, last fled the state in 2003 to thwart a redistribution plan. They ultimately lost this fight.
Trump easily won Texas in 2020, and it’s already one of the toughest places to vote in the United States. It does not have online voter registration and does not allow everyone to vote by mail. Texas was also among the states with the lowest turnout in 2020.
But he has been a Democrat in recent election cycles, driven in part by changing demographics, and the Republican effort is seen by many as a way to seek to compensate for that change by making it harder for groups that vote to vote. traditionally democratic.
[ad_2]
Source link