Debate on sweeping Texas elections bill stretches into the early morning hours

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate was poised to advance a massive elections bill on Sunday, after an hours-long, overnight debate in which Democrats blasted the GOP majority for releasing just hours earlier a new version of the legislation that expanded its restrictions and penalties.

Discussion on the sweeping voting legislation kicked off just after 10:30 p.m. It was ongoing more than three hours later, and would likely continue well into early Sunday morning. The Senate is expected to vote, and pass, the legislation along partisan lines later Sunday.

The bill would still need the approval of the Texas House by Sunday at midnight before it can advance to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has said he will sign it into law. Democrats in the House will likely try to deal the bill an 11th-hour death blow using procedural tactics.

Senate Democrats bemoaned the late night debate Sunday, and complained they only had a few hours to digest new additions to the bill. The final version of the bill clocked in at 67 pages — 44 pages longer than an earlier draft. They said the bill targets voters of color, reduces access to the ballot and will ultimately land the state in court.

“Texas has a pretty tragic past of suppressing voters. We’ve been in the courts for decades,” Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, said just after 2:30 a.m. “I have grave concerns about any bill that was crafted in the shadows or passed late at night.”

Bill author Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, described the legislation as a common sense approach to keeping elections safe and voting honest.

“We want elections to be secure and accessible,” Hughes said.

Senate Bill 7, if it becomes law, would set uniform early voting hours, empower partisan poll watchers and put new criminal penalties on voting officials and assistants who break the rules.

During closed-door discussions on the final bill, Republicans added provisions culled from bills that died this session, such as a requirement that mail-in ballot applicants provide an identification number on their documentation, or pledge they do not have an ID. They also included several new sections not found in any early version of the legislation, including provisions to make it easier to overturn the results of an election and to allow partisan poll watchers who believe they are illegally impeded from observing an election to seek legal relief.

The first five hours of debate were a tense, yet cordial, slug fest with Hughes on the receiving end of several rounds of volleys from indignant Democrats.

Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas criticized Republicans for tacking failed bills onto the elections legislation.

“This seems more like you’re trying to get in bills that you couldn’t pass, or you thought of some other way to do some things that many of the members of this chamber don’t want you to do,” he told Hughes. “Is the process worth anything?”

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, wondered aloud why there were more than a dozen law enforcement officers stationed in the Senate gallery when there were only a handful of spectators.

“Do you feel threatened by the 13 people who oppose this report in any way?” Zaffirini, who has served in the Senate since 1987, asked, referring to the chamber’s Democrats.

“Do I feel threatened? No, senator. Should I?” Hughes responded. “I always feel safe at the Capitol.”

“Good,” Zaffirini said, smiling. “I hope we don’t look dangerous.”

Just after 3 a.m., Hughes and Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, had a tense exchange about the bill’s effects on minority communities and whether the chamber’s Black and Latino members were appropriately consulted.

“You’re making it harder for people of color to cast their vote,” Miles shot out, to which Hughes insisted, “No, sir, we’re not.”

“Over and over again, this session, legislation has been passed that is harmful to people of color,” Miles said, adding sarcastically, “Thank you for bringing this horrible bill to the voters of the state of Texas.”

Hughes said he took Democrats’ concerns into account, axing a provision that would have cut the number of polling places serving voters of color in urban areas.

Several Democrats peppered Hughes with tough questions about other specific provisions that were left or added in. Rep. Royce West of Dallas asked why the bill expanded early voting on Sundays from five to six hours — but restricted opening hours to between 1 and 9 p.m.

“You don’t find that kind of disingenuous? The greatest number of people that vote on Sunday is African American,” West asked Hughes. Referring to legislation that could expand the hours Texans can buy alcohol on Sunday, he then quipped, “So, we’re going to be able to buy beer at 10 o’clock in the morning but we can’t vote until 1 o’clock?”

Hughes voted against the bill moving up alcohol sales, but told West it was too late to change the legislation now.

Democrats also asked Hughes which portions of the bill specifically targeted voting measures Harris County implemented in 2020.

“Those provisions about drive-through voting and 24-hour voting and unsolicited mail-in ballot applications came from Harris County. But there’s a whole bunch more in the bill,” Hughes responded.

As the main defender of the bill, he said it is the Legislature’s priority and prerogative to make voting laws more uniform. He repeatedly said the provisions in the bill would apply to all voters equally, “across the board.”

“One county doesn’t get to make up the rules,” he said. “The state decides what the Election Code is, and then the county has to follow that.”