Overcoming a lengthy walkout by House Democrats, Republican lawmakers in Texas this week sent Gov. Greg Abbott broad election reform legislation, Senate Bill 1, that reins in some of voting practices ushered in during the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill into law.
Chad Ennis, an elections expert with Texas Public Policy Foundation, issued a statement applauding final passage “of an election reform bill that will expand voting access, create protections that safeguard legally cast votes, and ensure that every election result is legitimate.”
Ennis added that “passage of this important legislation comes two months after opponents of the bill engaged in embarrassing and ultimately pointless delay tactics. The bill not only includes many measures to secure the sanctity of the ballot box, such as voter ID for mail-in ballots, but also includes other measures to make voting easier, such as expanded early voting hours.”
Critics say the legislation is restrictive and has made Texas one of the most difficult states in which to vote.
Passage came after enough House Democrats returned to the legislature to constitute a quorum. They had staged a walkout in July to thwart passage of the legislation.
Among other changes, the legislation will roll back drive-thru and 24-hour voting, require voter ID for mail-in ballots, ban the sending out of unrequested absentee ballots, and restrict third party collections of absentee ballots (ballot trafficking.)
With Abbott’s signature, Texas will join Georgia, Florida, and other states that have enacted varying levels of election reform.
November 2020 polling from Caltech and MIT shows that about 40% of voters lacked confidence in the integrity of national elections. An analysis of the data reported that “most Republicans and Trump supporters lacked confidence in the national administration of the election, with 66% of Republican registered voters lacking confidence, and 70% of Trump voters lacking confidence in the national administration of the vote.
“But when we get to the national level,” the analysis of a California Institute of Technology poll said, “we find that just over a majority of American registered voters (58%) were confident about the administration of this fall’s election, and that 39% lacked confidence. This lower level of confidence about the national administration of the election is concerning.”
