Truly, I do not have a fixation on Texas. However, Republican lawmakers, particularly those from Texas, have been drawing a lot of attention over the last 12 months or so. They’ve worked feverishly to enact new, very strict voting rules with a law that some see as a major setback for voting rights. After my last Civics 101 column, I wrote about what Republican lawmakers in Texas were attempting to do back in August, I committed that I’d give an update as soon as a vote was taken in the Texas legislature on the voting bill.
Democrats in Texas may have had their say, but Republicans got their way, and the harsh new strict voting bill has passed, and the Governor of Texas has signed it into law. Here’s some of what this new voting law in Texas states. The measure includes new identification requirements for people voting by mail and prohibits local election officials from sending a vote-by-mail application to someone who hasn’t requested one. Voters are also given new opportunities to correct mistakes with their mail ballots.
The law creates a slew of new criminal penalties and requirements for folks who assist voters at the polls or people who assist others planning to vote by mail.
It also bans drive-thru voting and extended voting hours. Republicans in the state argue that these innovations – which were mostly used by officials in Harris County, home to Houston, during the pandemic – opened the door to voter fraud.
James Slattery, a senior staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, was quoted in a recent NPR radio report that said voters of color and shift workers benefited the most from these methods of voting last year. “And so, you can consider the bans on those forms of voting to be a direct attack on voters of color in particular,” he said in an interview over the summer. In addition, the law expands what partisan poll watchers can observe during elections and grants them new protections.
There are increased crimes and penalties throughout this new voting law, just for participating in the process, and there is no explanation as to why.
One example is a provision that would create new requirements for people who are assisting voters. Among other things, they would have to take an oath swearing they didn’t encourage or coerce a voter into choosing them to help. They’d also have to swear they won’t influence the voter’s decisions in any way. Thomas Buser Clancy with the ACLU of Texas says the legislation would make it a state jail felony if they violate that oath.
“But there is no requirement that that violation will be known or with an intent to deceive,” he says. “So, all of a sudden, you have a situation where people are just trying to help their neighbor, their mom or dad, or even their community members, are going to be staring down a state jail felony if they make innocent mistakes.”
The bill also contains new rules and penalties for people who help someone voting by mail. Republicans say this is an effort to curb “ballot harvesting” in Texas, which is when third parties collect and turn in ballots for others.
Republicans have said this practice often leads to fraud.
Why is this story important to civics? It’s important because now that Texas lawmakers have passed this voting bill into law, other like-minded Republican lawmakers from other states will try and follow. This could upend equal voting rights for all eligible American voters for years to come.
Pay attention to American citizens. Is this the way you want our nation to go?
