"Worst Voter Suppression Since Jim Crow" - Democrats Furious After Texas Senate Passes Election Integrity Bill Limiting Mail-In Voting

The GOP-controlled Texas Senate on Thursday passed an election integrity bill limiting mail-in and curbside voting.

The bill passed largely on party lines in an 18-13 vote.

The measure, if passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Abbott, would limit voting hours, eliminate drive-through voting lanes and would prohibit “solicitation” by elected officials at ballot drop boxes.

As expected, the Democrats are furious and comparing the bill to “Jim Crow” laws.

Jim Crow laws were state laws that enforced racial segregation in the South.

Via CBS Austin:

The bill limits mail-in and curbside voting, both of which were expanded in many of the state’s largest counties last year as precautions for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, SB 7 would prohibit clerks from soliciting voters to apply to vote by mail, require voters who want to vote by mail or curbside based on a disability to provide documentation from a doctor, Social Security Administration or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and cutting early voting hours by forcing them to all go from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. – a direct response to Harris County having voting centers open until 10 p.m.

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, brought up the fact no civil rights organizations were consulted when drafting this bill.

“Passage of this particular bill is not indicative of ‘We the people,'” West said. “The reality is there is no problem [of voter fraud].”

“Senate Bill 7 is the worst voter suppression we’ve seen since Jim Crow, a full-on assault on the voting rights of Texans with disabilities and Black and Latino voters,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, reported The Dallas Morning News.

Georgia passed a similar law and the Democrat-media complex piled on Governor Kemp and accused him of bringing Jim Crow back to the South.