WASHINGTON — On Thursday, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., heard testimony about the Texas elections law that passed last year, known as Senate Bill 1.
Many state and local leaders have concerns about how the law has been impacting Texas elections since it went into effect in September. On Thursday, some of those leaders shared their concerns in front of the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Elections of the Committee on House Administration.
Thursday's hearing was titled "Voting in America: Ensuring Free and Fair Access to the Ballot in Texas." It provided an opportunity for Texas leaders and voting rights experts to offer firsthand accounts of the challenges they say are caused by Senate Bill 1.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown was one of those who testified. He said his focus would be on how Senate Bill 1 has made it more challenging for local leaders to uphold the voting rights of Texans.
"We've got registered voters, people who have the right to vote and are eligible in every other way to vote, trying to vote, and they're being told by SB1, by requirements of SB1, that their vote is going to be rejected," he said, referring to a change in the law that requires voters to put their ID numbers on the return envelope for mail-in ballots.
The law bans 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting and makes it illegal for local election officials to proactively give out mail-in ballot applications. The law also extended early voting hours in some counties.
There was so much controversy over the law that during the second special legislative session last year, Texas Democratic lawmakers left the state to go to D.C. so that the House could not meet quorum, delaying the passage of the bill. Eventually, the bill did pass and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September.
Thursday's hearing comes amid a big push to pass federal voting rights legislation. Aside from Brown, other leaders expected to testify include Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP State Conference; Hani Mirza, legal director for the voting rights program of the Texas Civil Rights Project; Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and Cindy Siegel, chair of the Harris County Republican Party.
The hearing began at 2 p.m. and was streamed here.
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