Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has set a special legislative session in an attempt to pass a measure focused on the state’s election laws and regulations—coming weeks after Democrats blocked a Republican-backed election reform package from advancing by leaving the Capitol building.
In May, the state Senate approved sweeping election legislation along party lines, which at the time drew condemnation from high-level Democrats as well as Marc Elias, a lawyer who has filed a number of election-related lawsuits on behalf of the Democratic Party. Echoing their criticism against GOP-backed election laws in other states, Democrats, including President Joe Biden, said the bill would suppress voter turnout rates and described it as an attack on democracy.
But state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the Republican who authored the bill, said the measure would keep Texas’s elections fair and honest.
The voting measure would grant more power to poll watchers by giving them more access inside polling areas, while creating new penalties against election officials who restrict poll watchers’ movements. The proposal would also allow a judge to void the outcome of an election if the number of fraudulent votes could change the result.
Abbott’s other priority legislation deals with how bail is handled, according to his recent comments to news outlets. The proposed measure, which was also killed by House Democrats last month, would make it more difficult for people who are arrested to bond out of jail without providing cash.
”I fully expect to have a session where we will pass an election integrity bill, as well as bail reform,” Abbott told the Dallas Morning News in June. “Those are both needed and they both must pass. And as we get there, we may be adding some additional items.”