GOP elections bill headed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for signature

AUSTIN — A divisive GOP elections bill that bans drive-through voting, empowers poll watchers and threatens election officials with new criminal penalties is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.

The Republican-led Legislature greenlit the sweeping rewrite of Texas election laws on Tuesday, effectively ending Democrats’ monthslong crusade to derail the legislation they say disenfranchises Black, Latino and disabled voters in an increasingly diversifying state.

While House Democrats twice fled the chamber in dramatic fashion to block the bill’s passage, setting off Abbott’s call for two special sessions, there was no such walkout on Tuesday.

Abbott, a Republican who named the election bill a priority this year, said he looks forward to signing it.

“Senate Bill 1 will solidify trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections by making it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” he said in a statement.

Texas follows other GOP-led states in tightening voting laws after President Donald Trump’s false claims the 2020 election was stolen.

Republican lawmakers say their bill ensures voting laws are consistent and protects against fraud, which experts say is rare. Texans already have ample opportunity to vote, GOP leaders say, and they point to changes in the new bill that will require more counties to offer at least 12 hours of early voting.

“How much fraud is OK? None. How much suppression is OK? None,” said Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola. “This is a bill we can be proud of.”

Democrats said the final bill makes a few strides in the right direction but still has too many penalties and restrictions that would discourage people from voting or criminalize them for honest mistakes.

They’ve taken particular issue with bans on 24-hour and drive-through voting deployed by Harris County last year to ease access in the pandemic and that proved popular with communities of color.

“This bill is not good enough for me to vote for, and I think it still has major flaws that will create problems down the road,” said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. “The worst thing we could ever do is prevent somebody from exercising their constitutional right to vote.”

Ultimately, the House passed in a 80-41 vote. One Republican, San Antonio Rep. Lyle Larson, joined Democrats in opposing it. The bill cleared the Senate in a 18-13 party-line vote.

The new changes tightening Texas’ already strict voting laws are set to kick in just before the 2022 election cycle, when Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and all 181 state legislators are on the ballot.

They come as voter turnout is rising in the state and set records in the 2020 election. Still, Texas falls near the bottom nationwide in voter participation.

Senate Bill 1 would do a number of things:

• Absentee voters, primarily elderly and disabled Texas, have new ID requirements, but also a new process to correct errors found with their vote-by-mail application and ballots.
• Election officials who send out unsolicited vote-by-mail applications, even to voters who qualify, could be charged with a felony. Political campaigns are still allowed to send them out.
• Poll watchers, who work on behalf of candidates or political parties to observe elections, are allowed “free movement” in the polling place, keeping just the ballot box off limits. Election officials could face criminal penalties for obstructing a poll watcher’s view or turning away a watcher who is qualified. The watchers must take a new training course and pledge not to “harass voters.”
• The state’s largest counties, including Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton, have to implement a video surveillance system to livestream all areas containing voted ballots, including central count.
• Early voting could only take place between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Counties with populations over 55,000 — instead of the current 100,000 — must offer at least 12 hours of early voting on weekdays.
• Drive-through voting is prohibited, which was offered in at least three counties last year to make voting more accessible in the pandemic.
• Assistants who help disabled Texans vote must disclose their relationship with the voter and pledge under penalty of perjury that they didn’t pressure or coerce the voter into choosing them.
• A candidate could sue an opponent for civil damages over alleged election fraud violations carried out by the opponent or someone acting on his or her behalf.
• Election officials can face civil penalties, including termination and loss of employment benefits, for violating the state’s election code.

The only last-minute hiccup in the GOP’s march to pass their priority legislation was how to handle controversial cases of illegal voting, like that of Crystal Mason. The Tarrant County woman was sentenced to 5 years in prison for illegally voting in the 2016 election, even though she said she didn’t realize she was ineligible.

An amendment that sailed through the House aimed at preventing more cases like Mason’s was stripped from the final bill by the conference committee. Hughes said there were concerns it was too far-reaching and could affect prosecutions of noncitizens.

In response, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution Tuesday that “no Texan should be prosecuted for the offense of illegal voting if the person voted or attempted to vote based on a mistaken, honest belief that the person was in fact eligible to vote.” It passed 119-4.

“You should not be put in jail for five years because of those circumstances,” said Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock.

The resolution is nonbinding, but House members said they hope it will send a message to the courts. Mason is still appealing her conviction, which is now before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Senate did not take up a similar resolution on Tuesday.