Texas republicans are backing off the worst provisions of their voter suppression bill

[LetMyPeopleVote]

This bill had passed the Texas senate and would have become law but for the courageous actions of Texas house Democrats. One provision on the gutting of Souls to the Polls is now being claimed to be a type and the GOP is also going to drop the crazy provision that would allow a state court judge to void an election without proof of sufficient fraudulent votes to change result.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant that this bill was thrown together at the end and no one had a chance to amend or deal with some truly crazy provision

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The provision to allow judges to overturn election was not in either the House or Senate bills and no one will admit how this provsion made it into the Texas bill

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[drray23]

1. putting pressure does work.

they thought they could sweep that under the rug.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. I love how the Texas republicans are backing off of some of the worst provisions

The bill was designed to gut Souls to the Polls. This provision was debate in the Texas senate and we told that the GOP wanted people to go to church in lieu of voting. Now the Texas racists are claiming that this was a typo

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[question everything]

3. Typo? (not type?)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. They claim that instead of 1 PM they meant 11AM

The trouble is that they argued in the Texas senate that meant to keep people from going from church to vote

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Texas Republicans clearly didn't read the election bill they almost passed

This was a horrible bill that had some really stupid provisions. The sad thing is that these provisions were pointed out during the debate in the Texas senate and the bill passed anyway. The bill was on its way to passing the Texas house when the Texas House Democrats walked out

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But Governor Abbott, who, in response, has threatened to defund the legislature by vetoing its budget (never mind the state constitutional questions such a move would provoke), has also suggested that he’ll add the bill to matters he directs the legislature to take up in a “special session” that he’s likely to call for later this summer. In the immediate aftermath of the Democratic walkout, then, it seemed like only a matter of time before SB7 would make its way to the Governor’s desk for signature.

But something strange has happened in the intervening fortnight: Some Republican members of the Texas legislature appear to be having second thoughts. The ban on Sunday morning voting was chalked up to a “typo.” The provision allowing judges more easily to overturn election results has since been described by one of the bill’s sponsors (who claimed not to know who had added that provision to the bill) as “horrendous.” And the list goes on. Even the staunchest defenders of the bill have had trouble defending its most controversial provisions now that they’ve been subjected to meaningful (which is to say, any) public scrutiny.

There are, of course, two possible explanations for these lawmakers’ after-the-fact recriminations: They’re either telling the truth (and so were about to railroad through significant voting restrictions of which they were unaware); or they’re not (and are unwilling to defend provisions publicly that they were all too happy to support privately).

We may never know which is more accurate. But the larger point here is that this is no way to run a railroad — and it’s certainly no way for the nation’s second-largest state to revise its election laws. Indeed, before 2013, most of this nonsense would not have been possible.

This was a truly stupid bill

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. This makes me smile

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[yellowdogintexas]

7. The Senate revised their bill in an overnight session,

then sent it to the House without hearings or input on the last day of session and expected the House to just pass it without review time.

the House Democrats could possibly have stretched out debate until the session closed but it wasn't working. Breaking the quorum was truly the last resort.