Civil rights organizations stand ready to file lawsuits over electoral reforms, which Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign soon.
Among the first will be LULAC, the oldest and largest Latino organization in the country.
Luis Vera, the group’s national counsel, said LULAC and other organizations will file lawsuits after SB1 is passed, claiming the changes would violate the rights of Latino voters.
“We don’t intend to hold this down, period,” said Rodolfo Rosales Jr. of San Antonio, the director of LULAC state.
Dr. Gregory Hudspeth, local president of the NAACP, said, “We haven’t had this discussion about a lawsuit, but I’m sure we won’t take anything off the table.”
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He said, “What we are seeing here is an attempt to limit the diversity of our elected bodies, the diversity of the Texas legislature, and the diversity we have in the United States Congress.”
Both said changes like adding identification requirements for postal voting, limiting early voting times, and empowering partisan election observers will make it harder to vote for minorities, seniors and people with disabilities.
However, House spokesman Dade Phelan said in a statement that the bill was “a significant step forward in promoting the integrity of our elections.”
The text of the draft law states in part that it was “only enacted to prevent fraud in the electoral process and to ensure that all legally cast ballots are counted”.
After the Texas House is passed late Thursday night, the bill will be presented to the governor after all the differences between the House and the Senate are worked out and approved.
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Once passed, the law would come into effect on September 1st.
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Texas House passes new election restrictions as Democrats’ hopes of killing the legislation wane
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