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>The bill filed on Thursday is the 11th introduced this year that would make it harder to vote in Texas.
A group of GOP state senators in Texas on Thursday introduced yet another bill aimed at making it harder to vote. If signed into law, it would cut back on the amount of time allowed for casting a ballot and require disabled voters to provide explicit proof of their disability in order to cast an absentee ballot.
According to the text of the bill, disabled voters would need to provide "written documentation from the Social Security Administration or the United States Department of Veterans Affairs evidencing that the applicant has been determined to have a disability," or a note from a doctor affirming that they are physically unable to vote in person.
The bill would also cut the hours polls are open in the early-voting period to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Under current law, counties can determine their own polling times, with Democratic strongholds like Harris County, which includes the city of Austin, keeping polls open until 10 p.m. for early voting.
It would also limit local election officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications to voters and would block third-party groups from handing them out.
Move Texas, a nonprofit that works to increase youth voter participation in the state, called the bill "the worst voting rights legislation to get filed this entire session."
"Senate Bill 7 is a fundamentally undemocratic attack on the right to vote here in Texas," the group said in a statement. "It is a shameless attempt to suppress the voices of young Texans and the rising electorate that we saw activated in 2020 — one of the most secure elections in our state's history."
Texas was one of the only states in the country that did not expand access to absentee ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://americanindependent.com/texas-republicans-disability-voting-absentee-proof-mail-ballots/
A group of GOP state senators in Texas on Thursday introduced yet another bill aimed at making it harder to vote. If signed into law, it would cut back on the amount of time allowed for casting a ballot and require disabled voters to provide explicit proof of their disability in order to cast an absentee ballot.
According to the text of the bill, disabled voters would need to provide "written documentation from the Social Security Administration or the United States Department of Veterans Affairs evidencing that the applicant has been determined to have a disability," or a note from a doctor affirming that they are physically unable to vote in person.
The bill would also cut the hours polls are open in the early-voting period to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Under current law, counties can determine their own polling times, with Democratic strongholds like Harris County, which includes the city of Austin, keeping polls open until 10 p.m. for early voting.
It would also limit local election officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications to voters and would block third-party groups from handing them out.
Move Texas, a nonprofit that works to increase youth voter participation in the state, called the bill "the worst voting rights legislation to get filed this entire session."
"Senate Bill 7 is a fundamentally undemocratic attack on the right to vote here in Texas," the group said in a statement. "It is a shameless attempt to suppress the voices of young Texans and the rising electorate that we saw activated in 2020 — one of the most secure elections in our state's history."
Texas was one of the only states in the country that did not expand access to absentee ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://americanindependent.com/texas-republicans-disability-voting-absentee-proof-mail-ballots/
