Eyes On | Texas Democrats’ Walkout Will Not Stop Election Reforms

Despite the apocalyptic headlines in the mainstream media, state legislatures have not exactly been running to join the election reform bandwagon. Texas is a case in point. The bill now at issue, SB 7, is a positive but hardly ground-shaking step towards election integrity. It includes the following provisions:

• Requires registrars to correct voting list violations within 30 days or else imposes financial penalties ($100 per violation) and empowers the secretary of state to correct the violations on behalf of the registrar.


• Prohibits solicitation of mail-in ballot applications


• Requires that applicants for mail-in ballots attest they are not physically able to vote in person


• Prohibits the distribution of early voting applications to people who did not request them


• Requires that a signature verification committee compare a voter’s signature on the envelope to the signature on his application


• Requires that electronic records of ballots, envelopes and applications include an image of both sides of the document


• Requires that certified poll watchers be allowed to sit close enough to both see and hear the elections officers counting ballots


• Prohibits authorized watchers from being denied free movement within the polling place, and makes it a misdemeanor for election officers to refuse to seat certified poll watchers


• Makes it an offense to obstruct a poll watcher’s view


• Requires chain of custody for precinct election records


• Prohibits overwriting or deleting election records on electronic storage devices


• Requires that voters using electronic machines have the option of not voting in every race on the ticket, if they choose


• Requires that electronic voting machines be auditable and provides funds for retrofitting non-auditable machines


• Requires a recount if the number of votes cast exceeds number of registered voters


• Prohibits the commissioners court from accepting large donations for the administration of elections, to prevent undue influence

It may seem like common sense, for example, to require that poll watchers be able to both see and hear what is going on, or to require a recount for a race in which there are more votes than voters. And yet Texas House Republicans, who control the legislative agenda, put off a vote on the bill until the last day of a legislative session that convenes only once every two years.Texas House Representative John Smithee (R-Amarillo) blamed the legislature for waiting until the last moment, and political science professor Dr David Rausch is quoted as saying: “I don't know if the Governor was really as upset about the Democrats as he was with the Republicans, because they could have passed this bill back at the beginning of May and it would have plenty of time to go through the system.”This suggests that the mainstream media, social media, and now corporate America as well, are succeeding in their campaign to intimidate reform-minded lawmakers and defy the express will of voters. If SB 7 passes in special session, as True the Vote projects it will, the Texas GOP will have made gains in voting integrity, but they will also have helped play into a national narrative completely controlled by anti-reform voices. Prepare for a repeat of Georgia:First, local lawmakers will decry the reform bill as an attack on voting rights. Texas Democrats have already upstaged their Georgia counterparts here with the walkout.Second, the Democrats’ partisan narrative will be amplified by news and social media. The AP, for example, breathlessly reported that SB 7, if passed, would “scale back ways to vote in Texas, which already has some of the nation’s strictest voting laws,” adding that Republicans’ “bare-knuckle” tactics are “driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.”Finally, large companies will attempt to exert financial pressure—something that should be anathema in a nation where we insist on one vote per citizen, whether that citizen is a pauper or a billionaire. In Georgia, this included a hectoring press release from Coca-Cola’s CEO as well as Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star game to a different state. In Texas, Dell and American Airlines have already attacked the legislation, which is especially ironic in American Airlines’ case, given that the company is one of many that was formerly headquartered in New York before moving to Texas.The real story behind these coordinated campaigns is that the people who rely on voter fraud in America, and who want to see more voter fraud, intend to play their hand on a national level: Turning red states purple requires lax voting laws that make it easy to cast fraudulent ballots. Blue states already have lax laws, but red states largely reject such ideas as no-ID voting and mail voting without signature verification. The only way around the will of these states is by transferring control of elections to the federal government.And that is why every press statement bemoaning an election integrity law—whether in Georgia or Texas or elsewhere—is followed by a plea to Congress to pass S1 or the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The real intention, barely disguised, is to use state-level hysteria to federalize American elections.As we outlined in a previous piece, both S1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would make state voting laws subject to the Department of Justice. Laws, in other words, would be approved by bureaucrats, not voters. Once that happens, it’s game over for the American republic.Despite the apocalyptic headlines in the mainstream media, state legislatures have not exactly been running to join the election reform bandwagon. Texas is a case in point. The bill now at issue, SB 7, is a positive but hardly ground-shaking step towards election integrity. It includes the following provisions:

• Requires registrars to correct voting list violations within 30 days or else imposes financial penalties ($100 per violation) and empowers the secretary of state to correct the violations on behalf of the registrar.


• Prohibits solicitation of mail-in ballot applications


• Requires that applicants for mail-in ballots attest they are not physically able to vote in person


• Prohibits the distribution of early voting applications to people who did not request them


• Requires that a signature verification committee compare a voter’s signature on the envelope to the signature on his application


• Requires that electronic records of ballots, envelopes and applications include an image of both sides of the document


• Requires that certified poll watchers be allowed to sit close enough to both see and hear the elections officers counting ballots


• Prohibits authorized watchers from being denied free movement within the polling place, and makes it a misdemeanor for election officers to refuse to seat certified poll watchers


• Makes it an offense to obstruct a poll watcher’s view


• Requires chain of custody for precinct election records


• Prohibits overwriting or deleting election records on electronic storage devices


• Requires that voters using electronic machines have the option of not voting in every race on the ticket, if they choose


• Requires that electronic voting machines be auditable and provides funds for retrofitting non-auditable machines


• Requires a recount if the number of votes cast exceeds number of registered voters


• Prohibits the commissioners court from accepting large donations for the administration of elections, to prevent undue influence

It may seem like common sense, for example, to require that poll watchers be able to both see and hear what is going on, or to require a recount for a race in which there are more votes than voters. And yet Texas House Republicans, who control the legislative agenda, put off a vote on the bill until the last day of a legislative session that convenes only once every two years.Texas House Representative John Smithee (R-Amarillo) blamed the legislature for waiting until the last moment, and political science professor Dr David Rausch is quoted as saying: “I don't know if the Governor was really as upset about the Democrats as he was with the Republicans, because they could have passed this bill back at the beginning of May and it would have plenty of time to go through the system.”This suggests that the mainstream media, social media, and now corporate America as well, are succeeding in their campaign to intimidate reform-minded lawmakers and defy the express will of voters. If SB 7 passes in special session, as True the Vote projects it will, the Texas GOP will have made gains in voting integrity, but they will also have helped play into a national narrative completely controlled by anti-reform voices. Prepare for a repeat of Georgia:First, local lawmakers will decry the reform bill as an attack on voting rights. Texas Democrats have already upstaged their Georgia counterparts here with the walkout.Second, the Democrats’ partisan narrative will be amplified by news and social media. The AP, for example, breathlessly reported that SB 7, if passed, would “scale back ways to vote in Texas, which already has some of the nation’s strictest voting laws,” adding that Republicans’ “bare-knuckle” tactics are “driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.”Finally, large companies will attempt to exert financial pressure—something that should be anathema in a nation where we insist on one vote per citizen, whether that citizen is a pauper or a billionaire. In Georgia, this included a hectoring press release from Coca-Cola’s CEO as well as Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star game to a different state. In Texas, Dell and American Airlines have already attacked the legislation, which is especially ironic in American Airlines’ case, given that the company is one of many that was formerly headquartered in New York before moving to Texas.The real story behind these coordinated campaigns is that the people who rely on voter fraud in America, and who want to see more voter fraud, intend to play their hand on a national level: Turning red states purple requires lax voting laws that make it easy to cast fraudulent ballots. Blue states already have lax laws, but red states largely reject such ideas as no-ID voting and mail voting without signature verification. The only way around the will of these states is by transferring control of elections to the federal government.And that is why every press statement bemoaning an election integrity law—whether in Georgia or Texas or elsewhere—is followed by a plea to Congress to pass S1 or the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The real intention, barely disguised, is to use state-level hysteria to federalize American elections.As we outlined in a previous piece, both S1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would make state voting laws subject to the Department of Justice. Laws, in other words, would be approved by bureaucrats, not voters. Once that happens, it’s game over for the American republic.