Texas GOP Advances Voter Suppression Laws In Overnight Hearing

Desperate to enact voter suppression laws, Texas lawmakers held dual special sessions on Saturday and Sunday. The hearings were to advanced new restrictive voting measures across the state. Members from the House and Senate committees heard hours of testimony into that latest well into the middle of the night. Witnesses and members of the public who were invited to attend. Organized by Democrats, voting advocates traveled by buses to speak on voting rights and speak out against the pending legislation.

Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, was one more than two hundred people who went to the Texas Capital to testify on Saturday. Some people waited for hours for an opportunity to speak out against the GOP's effort to overhaul elections in the state banning voting options like: 24 hour and drive-thru voting, overnight early voting options and voters would need to provide identification for mail voting. The election bills were Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3, were introduced last week and are updated versions of legislation Democrats blocked earlier this year. In addition, Texas legislators want to new restrictions on how the disabled gets help by others to cast a ballot, add criminal penalties for voting law violations and give more power to poll watchers.

In Texas, Republicans control the House and the Senate and that leaves Democrats very little options to block the legislation. Earlier this year, Texas House Democrats were able stop a restrictive voting bill from passing by staging a late-night walkout. This left Republicans with no required quorum to take a vote. Given that victory, it is possible that House Dems will use the tactic again, but according to NBC they are weighing all their options. Sunday's special session was called by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Texas is one of several states run by Republicans looking to pass sweeping restrictive voting laws. O’Rourke said this is shameful abuse of power, “It is the big lie that is the source and inspiration for so many of these voter suppression bills,” He continued. “Some of you are akin to the arsonist who wants to light the fire, and then get credit for trying to put it out, because you say, look, there may not be a statistically meaningful level of voter fraud, but my constituents are worried about it. Well, why are they worried about it? Because you keep talking about a problem that doesn’t exist and then trying to apply a solution that’s in search of a real problem.”

Nothing can affect the outcome of the 2020 election. The fact is, there is no proof or evidence, in Texas or any other state, that the election was somehow stolen due to rampant fraud. According to reports, that Trump "lost" the election by more than 7 million votes.