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- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday defended the GOP’s proposed voting restrictions in Texas.
- On “Fox News Sunday,” Abbott told Chris Wallace the legislation would not remove voters of color.
- Abbott has targeted the vote behind the wheel, denouncing a possible “coercive effect” on the part of the passengers.
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GOP Governor Greg Abbott of Texas said on Sunday that drive-thru voting, which was a popular voting method in the 2020 election, could potentially allow passengers to have a “coercive effect” on voters.
During an appearance On “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace asked Abbott about the need to debate the restrictive voting bill in the Texas Special Legislative Session and asked if the law would remove minority voters.
“More than half of the voters who turned out [for these voting options] were people of color. You say you want to facilitate the vote. This is going to make voting more difficult, and the question is why make it more difficult for some Texans to vote unless the goal is to suppress voting for people of color? ”He asked Abbott.
Abbott argued that counties should have policies in place to protect the integrity of their ballots.
“If you vote while driving, are you going to have people in the car with you?” It could be someone from your employer or someone else who could have a coercive effect on how you would vote which is against you to go to the polls alone and no one is looking over your shoulder, ”he said.
—Alert Poli (@polialertcom) July 11, 2021
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Abbott said the populous Harris County, which tested drive-thru voting in a second round of primary elections last year before extending it to the general election, lacked the power to “create its own. electoral system “.
“As far as drive-thru voting goes, it violates the fundamentals of what – the way the integrity of the vote has always been achieved and that is the sanctity of the ballot box,” he said.
Harris County is anchored by Houston, a longtime Democratic stronghold.
Wallace also questioned the GOP’s campaign to end 24-hour polling centers, which was popular with shift workers who work non-traditional hours.
“If the round-the-clock voting worked, why not continue it? Wallace asked.
“We are allowing more hours per day to vote to make sure that anyone with any type of experience, any type of work situation will have the opportunity to vote,” Abbott said.
The Texas Voting Bill would ban officials from allowing 24-hour voting centers during early voting and make it a crime for election officials to send unsolicited mail-in voting requests to voters, among other measures.
According to the New York Times, Democratic lawmakers in Texas are considering whether to leave the state to prevent the election overhaul from passing.
Lawmakers supporting the exit from statehood argued that the action would “shed new light on voting rights in Texas” and pressure Democrats in the United States Senate to pass federal voting reforms, according to several Democratic lawmakers who spoke to The Times.
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