Nearly every legislative session, Texas Republicans cite the myth of widespread, election-swinging voter fraud to try to make voting harder, scarier, and more confusing. This session, they came very close to getting their way, prompting calls for federal intervention before lawmakers get a second chance to pass sweeping voting restrictions later this year.
Democrats in the Texas House staged a dramatic walkout late Sunday, the final night of the session, to thwart an attempt by Senate Republicans to swiftly pass significant new restrictions without transparency or debate. The move killed the omnibus elections bill, Senate Bill 7, but Governor Greg Abbott immediately vowed to revive it in a special session and threatened to defund the Legislature if they didn’t get it passed. While the walkout likely postpones a losing battle for Texas Dems, voting rights advocates say the attempt to ram through new voting restrictions at the last minute illustrates the urgent need for restoring the federal Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court gutted several years ago.
Something like SB7 seemed destined to pass the GOP-dominated Legislature this session. Abbott, who as state attorney general targeted Black and Hispanic organizers who helped their elderly neighbors vote by mail, declared “election integrity” legislation a top priority for Texas lawmakers this year on the heels of Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen election. Current Attorney General Ken Paxton has prioritized going after minor voting irregularities, such as incorrect addresses on voter registration forms, with prosecutions that overwhelmingly target people of color. In December, Paxton sued to challenge the presidential election results in four battleground states following Trump’s loss, arguing that pandemic-related elections law changes—such as expanding mail-in and drive-thru voting—were unconstitutional. On January 6, Paxton helped rally the former president’s supporters in Washington D.C. ahead of the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol. State Representative Briscoe Cain, a Houston-area Republican who also joined the legal fight to overturn the election results, was appointed to chair the House elections committee and tapped to author the House’s SB7 companion, both duties he repeatedly bungled.
