Texas Governor Greg Abbott has now signed the Texas election integrity bill into law and thus the court battles begin:
THE HILL – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday signed a sweeping overhaul of his state’s election procedures after months of delay caused by Democrats who sought to block the bill they say will disenfranchise voters.
Abbott made the measure his top priority in two special legislative sessions he called over the summer, the first of which ground to a halt when state House Democrats denied majority Republicans a quorum by fleeing to Washington, D.C.
The legislature approved the bill last week and Abbott signed the measure in Tyler, accompanied by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Sen. Bryan Hughes (R), the lead Senate sponsor of the measure.
“Election integrity is now law in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.
The measure bars round-the-clock polling stations and places new restrictions on drive-through voting and voting by mail. It will give more authority to partisan poll watchers who can observe an election, and it increases the requirements for identification voters must show when they cast a ballot.
The bill will also prevent elections officials from distributing vote-by-mail applications to voters who have not specifically requested them, after registrars and county clerks in large Texas counties sent out applications in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It requires the Secretary of State’s office to check voter rolls every month in an effort to identify non-citizens who have improperly registered to vote.
Republicans say the new law is meant to restore integrity in the electoral process, almost a year after former President Trump lost re-election and began spreading disinformation about the results.
“One thing that all Texas can agree and that is that we must have trust and confidence in our elections,” Abbott said Tuesday, adding the bill “ensures that every eligible voter will have the opportunity to vote.”
Democrats have already announced a lawsuit, predictably, trying to stop the bill:
The ink from Abbott’s pen had not yet dried when a prominent Democratic election lawyer announced plans to sue the state to block the law from taking effect.
The lawyer, Marc Elias, said his team had sued on behalf of four Texas organizations: Two Hispanic advocacy groups, a retiree organization and the state’s largest teacher’s union. The lawsuit will challenge the law under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, and under two sections of the Voting Rights Act.
To paraphrase the late, great Rush Limbaugh, I hope they fail big time. Democrats tried to keep it from passing by running away from the state, when it really made no difference in the end. All they’ve really done is to delay the lawsuit filed against this bill by a month or two. And of course some hack judge in Austin will rule against this bill, blocking for a short time. But I believe when it gets to the Supreme Court, if necessary, it will be upheld. It should be upheld before it gets there, but we’ll see what happens.