Texas House Republicans, heading into a special legislative session, proposed banning drive-through and overnight early voting again Wednesday evening, in the latest draft of election legislation.
A 47-page draft of House Bill 3 was filed online on Wednesday evening, hours after Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Legislature to address “election integrity” in the special session, which begins Thursday.
In May, at the end of the Legislature’s regular term, Texas Democrats blocked a similar election bill with a late-night walkout and numerous other delay tactics, arguing that the legislation suppressed votes.
Like that bill, the legislation proposed Wednesday adds identification requirements to mail voting and bans drive-through and overnight early voting, options that were embraced in Harris County during the 2020 general election. The new bill adds criminal penalties to the election process, as well as empowering partisan poll watchers.
But unlike the previous bill, the legislation does not ban Sunday morning voting. One key Republican blamed a typographical error for that controversial provision, which was criticized for the impact it would have on Black voters and “souls to the polls” efforts.
The new bill allows early voting to extend until 10 p.m., an hour later than the bill that failed in May.
Republicans across the country have hurried this year to implement sweeping voting restrictions, fueled in part by former President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen through rampant fraud. The bill says it aims to prevent voter fraud in Texas elections, too.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
