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Texas Senate Passes Voting Legislation After Democrat Filibuster Ends

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


The Texas Senate has now passed the voting bills that the Texas House Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on.

The vote came less than 20 minutes after a near 15-hour filibuster by State Senator Carol Alvarado which she accomplished as she wore a back brace and did not sit, lean, eat drink or use the restroom as required by Texas law, CNN reported.

The bill will now head to the House where it will be slowed as not enough of the House Democrats have returned to create a quorum but, as CNN stated, the bill’s passage is all but assured.

“Senate Bill 1 slowly but surely chips away at our democracy. It adds rather than removes barriers for Texas seniors, persons with disabilities, African Americans, Asian and Latino voters from the political process,” state Sen. Alvarado said during her filibuster. “Senate Bill 1 is a regressive step back in the direction of that dark and painful history.”

“My friends, voter suppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere,” she said. “As we draw this discussion to an end, it is my sincere hope that civil acts by everyday Texans — from the Senate floor to the ballot box — can help shed the light.”

“What do we want our democracy to look like?” she said. “Do we want our state to be more or less inclusive? . . . Instead of making it easier to vote, [this bill] makes it easier to intimidate. Instead of making it harder to cheat, it makes it harder to vote.”

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But Republican Sen. Bob Hall said that it was “one of the best bills we’ve passed in a long time.”

“We made changes, fundamental changes that will benefit all people,” he said. “It doesn’t matter your background, your ethnicity. It’s aimed at everyone in Texas to ensure that every vote counts.”

“There was a lot of input from all parties in there, that, I think, made the bill better,” he said. “There is absolutely nothing racist in this bill.”

The next stop for SB1 would be in the Texas House, which has been paralyzed for a month due to a lack of quorum. Texas House Democrats continue to intentionally break quorum as a method to block election legislation, like SB1 and the House version HB3, from becoming law. The Texas House speaker signed civil arrest warrants for 52 Democrats this week after House Republicans voted to direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to send for those members and compel them to return to the House.

Those House members received an email Wednesday morning from the House Sergeant-at-Arms informing them of the civil warrant for their arrest.

“As of this morning, you have not voluntarily appeared in the House chamber and the Speaker has signed a warrant for your civil arrest. As a notice to you of this action, I am attaching a copy of that warrant to this e-mail,” the email said. “I respectfully request that you appear voluntarily in the House chamber today and report to the Journal Clerk so that your presence can be recorded in the Journal and the House can proceed with its business.”

This came after the Texas Supreme Court decided that the House Democrats could be arrested.

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature can be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol.

“The Supreme Court of Texas swiftly rejected this dangerous attempt by Texas Democrats to undermine our Constitution and avoid doing the job they were elected to do,” said Renae Eze, an Abbott spokeswoman.

“We look forward to the Supreme Court upholding the rule of law and stopping another stall tactic by the Texas Democrats,” Eze added.

The Statesman reported:

Responding to an emergency motion filed hours earlier, the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked an Austin district judge’s order that prohibited the arrest of Democrats participating in the ongoing quorum break.

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Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan, represented by Attorney General Ken Paxton, argued that state District Judge Brad Urrutia’s order improperly stopped them from exercising authority specifically granted by the Texas Constitution.

“Compelling the attendance of its members is a prerogative given to the House by the Texas Constitution,” the petition said.

The appeal asked the all-Republican Supreme Court to overturn the order by Urrutia, a Democrat, before 5 p.m. Tuesday, noting that the second special session is ongoing and the “House Democrats’ return to Texas is imminent.” Abbott and Phelan also said Uruttia’s plan to hold an Aug. 20 hearing on the matter would come too late in a special session that can run no later than Sept. 5.

In response, the state’s highest civil court blocked enforcement of Urrutia’s order while justices weighed the legal issues. The House Democrats were given until 4 p.m. to file a response.

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