AUSTIN, Texas — As a singer bellowed “Amazing Grace" at the Texas Capitol, youth activists from all walks of life dropped roughly 250,000 rose pedals onto the rotunda to represent the nearly 270,000 Texans of color who turn 18 each year — voting age in the U.S.

What You Need To Know

  • The House Elections Committee voted to advance HB 6, which would make it a state felony for local election officials to distribute an application to vote by mail to a voter who didn't request one

  • SB 7 would ban counties from proactively sending out vote-by-mail applications and further prohibit them from merely encouraging voters to apply to vote by mail

  • As of Feb. 12, there were only 43 pending voter fraud prosecutions, none of which have yet resulted in a guilty verdict

  • Throughout the country, 250 bills from 43 states have been introduced that would restrict voting access

The symbolic moment was organized by Jolt Action — a non-profit that works to increase the civic participation of Latinos in Texas — and NextGen America, an organization that aims to build the grassroots power of young voters in key states and districts to elect pro-climate Democrats into office.

Both organizations are calling on state legislators to vote “no” on House Bill 6 and Senate Bill 7, bills which, if passed, would further restrict young people of color from exercising their right to vote. The action was taken on the same day the House Elections Committee voted to advance HB 6, which would make it a state felony for local election officials to distribute an application to vote by mail to a voter who didn't request one.

SB 7 would ban counties from proactively sending out vote-by-mail applications and further prohibit them from merely encouraging voters to apply to vote by mail. The bill would also require voters with disabilities to obtain and provide documentation in order to qualify to vote by mail. It allows poll watchers to video or record voters, which, critics say, is basically an invitation for harassment.

Both measures are legislative priorities for Texas Republicans, who this year are mounting a broad campaign to scale up the state’s already restrictive voting rules and pull back on local voting initiatives championed in diverse urban centers. These proposed laws arrive ahead of a potentially high turnout election in which Democrats continued to drive up their margins. That push echoes national legislative efforts by Republicans to change voting rules after voters of color helped flip key states to Democratic control.

“In the last two years, Texas has seen more mass shootings than proven incidents of voter fraud. Our state has now confirmed over 200 deaths due to the power grid failure during February’s storm. And yet legislators are more interested in passing laws that cut back Texans’ access to the polls,” said Cristina Tzintzún, Executive Director of NextGen America. “Texas historically has had one of the lowest voter turnout rates and Republicans have liked it that way, but now young people are turning out like never before. Those young voters, who are majority brown and Black, threaten their power. We’re here to tell them that Black and brown voters aren’t the future; we’re the now. We are the diversity some legislators don’t want the rest of the country to see. And we won’t stand for Republicans trying to leave us out of our great nation’s democracy and voting rolls.”

Bills similar to both HB 6 and SB 7 were proposed during the last legislative session, but they were voted down by many Republicans, some of whom viewed the would-be laws as a blatant attempt at voter suppression.

As demographic shifts in Texas threaten Republican control of the state’s levers of power, several key Republican legislators have changed their positions on the legislation, critics allege.

SB 7 is one of the broadest proposals under consideration during the 2021 Texas legislative session. Beyond prohibiting extended or overnight voting hours meant to accommodate shift workers, it would outlaw drive-thru voting, make it illegal for local election officials to proactively send applications to vote by mail to voters, allow partisan poll watchers to video record some voters who receive assistance to fill out their ballots, and set specific rules for the distribution of polling places in the state’s largest counties — most of which are either under Democratic control or favored Democrats in recent national and statewide elections.

The legislation has been offered under the banner of “election integrity,” with state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, defending it as a measure that “standardizes and clarifies” voting rules so that “every Texan has a fair and equal opportunity to vote, regardless of where they live in the state.”

“Overall, this bill is designed to address areas throughout the process where bad actors can take advantage, so Texans can feel confident that their elections are fair, honest and open,” Hughes said at the start of the Senate debate on the bill.

The Republicans’ tunnel-vision focus on supposed cases of voter fraud comes just days after the ACLU of Texas released data about Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempts to root out such cases.

Speaking about HB 6 earlier last month, a representative from Paxton’s office insisted there were 500 pending cases targeting people accused of voting infractions, the civil liberties group noted.

But, the ACLU of Texas obtained the actual number of cases through a public information request: As of Feb. 12, there were only 43 pending prosecutions, none of which have yet resulted in a guilty verdict.

Redistricting could also be driving the push for voter suppression

Throughout the country, 250 bills from 43 states have been introduced that would restrict voting access. Historically, Texas has one of the worst track records in terms of voter turnout, but voters showed up to the polls in near-historic fashion during the last election cycle.

Another motivation for this slate of legislation, said Gloria Gonzales-Dholakia, Executive Director of Jolt Action, is the redistricting process happening this session.

“We're drawing new maps,” she said. “I think a lot of our representatives that were not supportive of these bills two years ago are now concerned about this redistricting and what these maps are going to look like … If you look at some of these bills, it's not a secret that they're going to disproportionately affect different communities.

“When you limit extended voting hours, you know that that's going to hurt your working class,” she continued. “It's also going hurt young people and students.

Critics of the proposed legislation are also concerned that it could take at least a decade to undo the damage caused by these bills if they are passed into law.

“These are bills that are trying to intimidate people,” Gonzales-Dholakia said. “These are back to the Jim Crow days. Let's get out there and let's scare people and let's intimidate them.”