Texas is closer to passing restrictive voting legislation | Election News

The American Civil Rights Organization stated that the legislation will make voting “more difficult and scary”, especially for people of color.

The state of Texas is closer to passing a controversial bill on voting restrictions passed earlier by U.S. President Joe Biden condemn As part of the “attack on democracy,” this will disproportionately harm blacks and other people of color.

Greg Abbott, the Republican Governor of Texas, said that if passed, he plans to sign it into law. The bill will abolish drive-through voting, empower partisan opinion poll observers, and restrict voting on Sunday. Because many black churchgoers go to polling stations on Sundays, and other restrictions.

According to the New York Times, the Texas Senate passed the bill by a vote of 18 to 13 shortly after 6 a.m. local time (11:00 GMT) on Sunday, according to the New York Times. , The House of Representatives is expected to take measures later in the day. The legislative session is scheduled to end at midnight.

Civil rights groups criticized this legislation — formally known as Senate Bill No. 7 or SB7 — as an attack on voting rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas said on Twitter on Saturday: “The bill will make voting more difficult and scary-in a state that is already the most difficult to vote in the country.”

The bill is one of several pieces of legislation adopted by U.S. Republican legislators to restrict voting after the 2020 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump falsely stated that the election was affected by widespread voter fraud.

Biden said in a statement on Saturday afternoon that the bill was “wrong and does not meet American standards.”

“This is part of the attacks on democracy that we have seen so often this year — and often disproportionately targeted black and brown Americans,” the President of the United States said.

Gary Bledsoe, chairman of the Texas Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), pointed out on Sunday that “this law that brings us back to the time of Jim Crow took place on the anniversary of the black Wall Street. Massacre.”

Genocide Beginning on May 31, 1921, the thriving black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma was in ruins, and white mobs burned buildings and killed about 300 people.

Bledsoe said in a statement: “Our voices need to be heard today and forever.”

The Texas Act would prohibit Texans from using 24-hour polling stations or voting in drive-through polling stations located in parking lots and garages. It will also prohibit mobile units or temporary buildings from being used as polling stations.

The legislation also introduced new requirements for Texans who wish to vote by mail, and prohibits election officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters. This will also make it more difficult to remove destructive poll observers.

In recent months, Florida, Georgia and Arizona have also approved new voting restrictions.

The New York University Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks national voting legislation, said that between January 1 and May 14 this year, at least 14 states in the U.S. enacted 22 laws restricting voting rights, and dozens of other states are working hard. . Through the state legislature.