A Texas senator ended a 15-hour filibuster on Thursday to protest the Democrats’ latest refusal over new voting restrictions. However, it did not delay Republicans who approved the broad elections bill minutes after she had left the floor.
Despite the GOP’s continued efforts to tighten Texas’ electoral laws, they were not able to bring Republican Gov. closer. Greg Abbott’s desk is now a month older than it was a month ago. The Senate bill is still being held up by Democrats who refuse to appear in the state House of Representatives. This standoff has lasted 32 days.
Democrat Carol Alvarado started speaking just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, despite the fact that she knew the Senate would not block her filibuster. She was required to remain standing and speaking, was prohibited from taking bathroom breaks and wore running shoes on the Senate floor, just as former Texas legislator Wendy Davis did in 2013 when she filibustered a sweeping anti-abortion bill.
“What is wrong with driving-thru voting during a pandemic?” What is wrong with 24-hour voting Why can’t we extend voting hours for those who work late? Alvarado asked in the final moments of her filibuster, “Where is all the fraud?” “Where does it end?”
After finally dropping the microphone, she hugged her Democratic colleagues. Minutes later, the Senate passed the bill 18-11. However, it remains stuck because Democrats are continuing to hold out at the Texas Capitol.
Alvarado’s filibuster began hours after officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants for more than 50 absent Democrats on Wednesday. Frustrated Republicans have intensified their efforts to end the impasse over the election bill.
After making their rounds inside the Texas Capitol, sergeants at-arms dropped off copies of the warrants in the offices of Democrats and politely asked staff to inform their bosses that they would return, there was little sign the stalemate which began in July when Democrats fled to Washington, D.C. to stop the statehouse from grinding to a halt, was closer to resolution.
The Texas Legislature was thrown into unfamiliar territory by the latest escalation. Neither side can be certain about what will happen next or how far Republicans would go to get a quorum (100 present legislators) — a threshold that they were only four short of reaching.
“I don’t worry about things that I can’t control,” stated Erin Zwiener (state representative), one of the Democrats served with a warrant. She has refused to return the Capitol. “These warrants don’t surprise me and they don’t affect my plans in any way.”
Democrats who acknowledged that they could not stop the GOP voting bill passing due to Republicans’ dominance at both Texas Legislature chambers, responded with new displays of defiance. One of the warrants was granted in Houston by a judge to prevent him from returning to the Capitol.
The NAACP also stepped in on behalf of the Texas Democrats, urging the Justice Department to investigate whether a federal crime was being committed when Republicans threatened to have them arrested.
Refusing to attend legislative sessions constitutes a violation of House Rules — it is a civil offense and not a crime. This leaves the power that warrants have to bring Democrats back to the chamber undefined, even for Republicans who invoke it. Democrats would not face jail. Republican Travis Clardy, a Republican, helped to negotiate an early version the voting bill that Democrats had stopped with a May walkout. He said he believes Democrats could be physically brought back into the Capitol.
Jim Murphy, Texas House Republican Caucus leader, stated that while he hasn’t seen this situation play out in his tenure, he believes officers could reach the missing legislators and ask them to return.
Murphy stated that Murphy hopes they will arrive because warrants have been issued, and they do not want to be arrested. It is unbelievable to me that people have to be arrested to do the job they fought for. They took an oath to uphold Texas Constitution.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is the state’s law enforcement agency.
The move marks a new effort by the GOP to end the protest over elections legislation that began a month ago with 50 Democrats taking private jets to Washington in a dramatic show of resolve to make Texas the front lines of a new national battle over voting rights.
Republicans are currently attempting to pass a series of tweaks and modifications to Texas’ election code. This would make it more difficult and sometimes even more risky to cast a Texas ballot. Texas already has some of most restrictive election laws in America.
Texas is one of many states where Republicans have rushed new voting restrictions to respond to the false claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election had been stolen. The current bill is similar to the ones Democrats blocked last month by going to the nation’s capital. It would prohibit 24-hour polling and drive-thru voting, and allow partisan poll watchers greater access.
It was unclear Wednesday how many Democrats remained in Washington, where they had hoped to push President Joe Biden and other Democrats there to pass federal legislation that would protect voting rights in Texas and beyond. Even though the Senate Democrats promised to make it their first order of business upon their return in the fall, they do not have a strategy for defeating the steadfast Republican opposition.
