Pending Bill - "Purity of the Ballot Box"

What happened: At about 3 a.m. on Friday, May 7th, Senate Bill 7 passed the House with amendments added. 

What’s next: The amended bill now goes to a conference committee made up of members from both chambers of the legislature, a smoke-filled back room where they can remove or change amendments in order to reconcile the different versions. Next, the finalized bill goes back for a final vote (no more debating or amending) where the GOP majority ensures passage.

The background: After the 2020 election, where voter-turnout hit the highest percentage of participation in an election since the 1960s, Texas Republicans solidified their leadership of the Lone Star State, winning convincingly. The people had spoken loud and clear. Yet, despite tremendous success at the state-level, tremendous-in-chief did not get re-hired; former President Trump lost the election. Claims of voter fraud (the same claims he had argued in 2016) quickly spread from news organizations such as Fox and social media. The claims were repeatedly proven false, despite having their days and months in court—judges appointed by Trump were the ones who dismissed Trump. But even though Trump eventually vacated the premises, his persistent claim of fraud lingers in the greater GOP like a big broccoli cheese fart under a blanket of loyalty—they all allegedly smell it, but they can’t find those that allegedly dealt it. Republicans, like those in Texas, who benefited from the 2020 election have to awkwardly question the integrity of their own election results according to Trump’s playbook.

Those for voter “protection” argue that even one false vote is too many. They compare it to a bank account and how only 100% security for a bank account is acceptable, and they point to real cases of fraud in the past as evidence. Some of their solutions in Senate Bill 7 are empowering poll watchers to better video record and observe, preventing mail-in-ballot applications being sent out without solicitation, preventing nearly all voting from a vehicle, preventing voting inside a parking garage, preventing voting in a temporary structure like a tent, preventing early-voting after 7 p.m., and substantially raising the requirements to vote-by-mail due to a disability, making physicians more liable for false claims of disabilities.  

Those against voter “suppression” argue fraud is infrequent, small-scale, and just a cover-story to perpetuate voter suppression like the Jim Crow era in the South where laws that limited a person's ...