AUSTIN, Texas —With less than three days left to go in the legislative session, the details of a major bill that could affect the future of Texas elections remains in question. Author of the Senate version, Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, told Capital Tonight that final details could be released as early as Friday.
“The goal all along has been to respond to what we've learned from Texans who've told us about problems they've experienced, right, we hear testimony over the interim. People testifying under oath about what the problems are,” Hughes said. “We made some changes to the bill, different interest groups express their opinion, so we're getting real close to a bill, it's going to be strong.”
The final form is being worked out among a select group of members from both parties and both chambers in a private conference. That concerns voting rights organizations that have worked to ensure the bill does not unfairly target voters of color or those living with disabilities.
“We're in a waiting process right now to see what is actually going to be in this bill, but because this whole process has gone behind closed doors, it's without public input,” said Charlie Bonner, communications director for MOVE Texas.
The proposals in question have been amended several times throughout the legislative session, but all provisions outlined in the original House and Senate versions are on the table.
They include measures that ban drive-thru voting, punish unsolicited mailing of absentee ballot applications, limit private donations of more than $1000 to counties, and regulate early voting hours. Those were popular voting options elections administrators instituted during the pandemic to accommodate safety concerns.
“What we don't do in a constitutional republic is allow a county government to change the law,” Hughes said. "We had one county in one election create stuff that was not in the law, so this bill says, 'follow the law.'"
Despite the lack of widespread voter fraud, Texas Republicans are dead set on their zero-tolerance approach to those crimes. It was just one item on a hardline conservative agenda dominating the legislative session.
“We haven't quite passed that in the conference committee report, but I'm hopeful that that's going to happen. We've got to get these things done. So you know it's more than just what I want to see happen. This is what our voters want to see happen,” said Rep. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston. Middleton is also chair of the House Freedom Caucus.
House Democrats were able to cut a deal on the bill which they hope ends up sticking. Among those amendments include allowing election judges to call police when a poll watcher breaches the peace and inform defendants how felony convictions will affect their right to vote.
“Our goal was to make it less bad as possible, and so one of the things we're able to do with amendments was lower penalties [and] try to make things more clear about what is a crime versus what isn’t. Because we don't want people to go to jail for making honest mistakes,” said Rep. John Bucy, D-Cedar Park. Bucy is a member of the House Elections Committee.
In line with the GOP’s push for uniformity, the Senate bill initially included a formula that affected where and how many polling locations there could be. Among several sticking points, conferees will also have to figure out how much authority to give to untrained, partisan poll watchers.
“There's a role for poll watchers, but it crosses the line when it becomes an intimidation factor and it becomes a way to keep people from the ballot box,” Bucy said.
An election bill is going to pass this legislative session, and voting rights groups will be ready to respond no matter how far that election bill will go.
“We’re going to be registering and turning out this new generation of Texas voters, because it's what we're called to do in this moment,” Bonner said.