Texas Senate passes elections bill after 15-hour Democrat filibuster

The Texas Senate passed an elections bill today to shore up elections in the Lone Star state after a 15-hour Democrat filibuster:

CNN – The Texas state Senate passed Senate Bill 1, an election overhaul bill that would add new restrictions and criminal penalties to the voting process, Thursday morning on a 18-11 party line vote.

The final vote was taken fewer than 20 minutes after a 15-hour filibuster of the bill from state Sen. Carol Alvarado concluded.

Alvarado, wearing a back brace for support and using a catheter, spoke on the bill for 15 hours and four minutes on her feet without sitting, leaning, eating, drinking or using the restroom — in accordance with Texas rules.

The Houston Democrat concluded her filibuster, surrounded by several of her colleagues who took turns asking questions throughout the night, on the Texas Senate floor just before 9 a.m. CT.

And now the bill heads to the Texas House after the state’s Supreme Court upheld the power of the House Speaker and the Governor to arrest Democrats refusing to do their jobs and allow for quorum:

The bill will next head to the House, where Democrats have delayed its passage by vacating the Capitol, though its eventual passage in the Republican-led legislature is virtually assured.

Republican Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes, the bill’s sponsor, has repeatedly said SB1 would make it “easier to vote, harder to cheat.”

SB1 includes broad new protection and access for partisan poll watchers, mail-in ballot restrictions, a drive-thru voting ban, restrictions to the early voting timeframe, video surveillance and assistance restrictions.

While the bill does add one extra required hour per day of early voting, it sets a specific timeframe in which voting must be done — banning extended hours and 24-hour voting, a measure used during the pandemic in Harris County that local officials testified was especially popular with voters of color. SB1 also further restricts local election officials, for example, adding criminal penalties for sending unsolicited ballot request forms. Some Democratic amendments, like a cure process for mail-in ballot mistakes, were accepted in the final version of the bill.

You know CNN hates writing this article and especially admitting that the bill’s passage is “virtually assured”. And it should be.

I’ll let you know when the House passes the bill and Abbott signs it. Then, of course, it will head to the courts where Democrats will try and stop it that way by making the most absurd claims unfounded in truth.


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