Around the nation, there are still some potent concerns regarding just how fair and secure our 2020 election was, particularly among Republicans who either believe that Donald Trump was robbed, or believe that expressing that sentiment will keep them in the good graces of the MAGA Movement.
In order to express this, GOP legislators the country over have been introducing new, tighter voting rights laws and voter ID laws meant to keep our polling from becoming a free-for-all of unknown veracity.
And, because the Republicans are in favor of it, the Democrats are arbitrarily not on board.
In fact, they are so incensed at the idea that they’ve even taken to acting out childishly to postpone some of the forthcoming legislation.
As the clock got closer to the midnight deadline, Democratic lawmakers in Texas decided it was time for dramatic action to block passage of a massive overhaul of the state’s election laws. The measure had seemed all but certain to pass, but with a little more than an hour to go before the deadline Democrats staged a walkout, depriving their Republican colleagues of the 100-member quorum needed to pass the measure. It amounted to one of the biggest protests to date by Democrats against the efforts by Republicans across the country to restrict voting rights. And it was historic too. It marked only the fourth time in the history of Texas that lawmakers decided to break quorum to protest a bill. The last time the strategy was used was in 2003, when 50 Democrats fled to Oklahoma to protest redistricting.
But there is little hope of a win for the left here.
The Democrats’ victory is likely to be short-lived. Although the midnight deadline meant anything not passed by then would be dead for the year, Gov. Greg Abbott made clear he would bring up the measure again in a special session. “Election Integrity & Bail Reform were emergency items for this legislative session. They STILL must pass,” Abbott tweeted. “They will be added to the special session agenda.” Abbott didn’t specify when the special session would start, but it could be as early as Tuesday.
Texas is merely the latest state to consider taking such measures, following Georgia and Florida.
