Texas Democratic Senator Carol Alvarado to obstruct GOP elections bill

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Pressure from GOP voting restrictions that left the Texas House scrambling to rally absent Democrats also shut down work in the Texas Senate on Wednesday night as State Senator Carol Alvarado threw herself into an obstruction vs the GOP priority vote bill.

“I rise today to speak against Senate Bill 1,” Alvarado said, beginning his filibuster just before 5:50 pm as the chamber neared a final vote on the target of the Houston Democrat’s efforts.

Although Democrats are outnumbered in the chamber, they are sometimes able to outsmart the law by speaking indefinitely, usually before a key deadline or the end of the legislative session. Alvarado’s obstruction, however, will likely end up being more of a token gesture than a credible attempt to block passage of the bill. The legislature is only on the fifth day of a 30-day special session, called as Democrats left the House without enough members present for the Republican majority in that chamber to pass legislation.

Before her obstruction, Alvarado told the Texas Tribune that she would use a “tool in our box which is a Senate tradition” just as House Democrats used their quorum break to block the bill and promised to continue. “as long as I have the energy.”

“I am using what I have at my disposal in the Senate,” Alvarado said, acknowledging that the bill would eventually pass in the Senate. “Filibuster isn’t going to stop it, but filibuster is also used to curb an issue – to draw attention to what’s at stake – and that’s what I do. “

To sustain the filibuster, Alvarado must stand on the Senate floor, not leaning on his desk or chair, and talk continuously. If she wanders off topic, her effort may be halted after a series of points of order.

SB 1 is the Senate’s renewed effort to restrict voting by prohibiting local officials from taking various measures to make voting more accessible, and further strengthening the postal voting process. SB 1 is almost identical to the legislation approved by the Senate in the first extraordinary session, and opposes Democratic lawmakers, civil rights groups and disability advocates who fear the bill will limit l access and remove marginalized voters.

” We are talking about [it being] easy to vote on, hard to cheat, and that is the purpose of this bill, ”said Senator Bryan Hughes, the Republican from Mineola who drafted the bill, earlier today when the Senate called gave its initial approval at SB 1 on 18-11. party line vote. “He is cracking down on these vote-reapers, these paid political agents who try to coerce the voters, who try to mislead voters, who try to come between the voter and his ballot. We won’t have that in Texas.

Shoved under the mantle of “electoral integrity” of Texas Republicans, SB 1 strengthens freedoms for observers who support polls inside polling stations and establishes new rules – and possible criminal penalties – for those who help. voters, including people with disabilities, to vote.

Republicans pushed ahead with these changes even as disability advocates continued to warn that the wording of SB 1 risks depriving voters that lawmakers claim they want to protect by limiting the help voters with disabilities could receive and potentially subjecting those who help them to increased penalties for errors. There is also no evidence left that fraud is occurring on a large scale in Texas.

“When did the crackdown on voter reapers become a crackdown on voters? Said State Senator Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston. “Who wants voter reapers? Why would we tolerate it? We shouldn’t.”

Hughes also defended the bill, noting that it would allow extra time for the vote. SB 1 adds an extra hour to the required early voting hours, reducing it from 8 hours to 9 hours per day, and lowers the population threshold for counties required to provide at least 12 hours of voting in the second week early voting in state elections.

But the bill would also ban local voting options such as 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting that are forbidden in Alvarado’s home county, Harris County, even though the top election official in the Texas secretary of state told lawmakers he was unaware. evidence of fraud related to these initiatives.

The bans sparked particular outrage from Democrats and voting rights advocates, as Harris County said the initiatives were particularly successful in reaching voters of color.

“While the provisions of this bill would make it easier for some Texans to vote, it would simultaneously make it harder for historically disenfranchised communities of color to participate in elections,” said Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. “If Senate Bill 1 is passed, communities of color will have fewer opportunities.”

She pointed out how the bill’s new window for early voting – between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. – would reduce the extended hours offered in some of the state’s largest counties in the 2020 election where “about one of the three black Texans, one of three Latino Texans and one of three Asian Texans live. “

Ahead of the chamber’s preliminary vote on the bill earlier Wednesday, Hughes agreed to a series of amendments that addressed at least one line of concerns raised by voting rights advocates.

In what appears to be a concession to the Democrats who pushed for its creation, SB 1 includes language allowing for a new correction process for mail-in ballots that would normally be rejected due to a missing signature or endorsement. determined by a local review committee. does not belong to the elector who returned the ballot. The Senate approved an amendment to allow voters to resolve these issues online instead of requiring them to go in person to their county election office.

The chamber also added an amendment to allow this hardening process to cover the new identification requirements that the bill creates for Texans voting by mail. SB 1 requires these voters to provide their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number on mail-in ballot applications and envelopes used to return their ballots. For their votes to be counted, this information must match the person’s voter record.

The bill also prohibits local election officials from sending unsolicited requests to request a mail-in ballot, even voters 65 and over who automatically qualify to vote by mail, or from providing requests to groups. local helping to get out the vote. Political parties would still be able to send spontaneous candidacies on their own account.

The eventual passage of SB 1 in the Senate is expected to be the latest strike in Republicans’ struggle to quell the state’s voting process, which has now extended to a second round of legislative overtime amid the blockade of Democrats in the House.

Disclosure: The Texas Secretary of State has financially supported The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial support plays no role in the journalism of the Tribune. Find a full list of them here.