By Jane C. Timm - NBC News
Republican Texas lawmakers voted Tuesday in favor of state law enforcement locating their fellow Democrats who left the state in a last-ditch attempt to block the passage of electoral reforms due to lack of a quorum.
The Texas Democrats marched to Washington, DC and appeared in front of the Capitol to ask federal legislators to help them, taking their fight to the Senate.
The governor, Greg Abbott, said for his part: "As soon as they return to the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be locked up inside the Texas Capitol until they do their job," he told the KVUE television channel.
The state House of Representatives does not have the necessary quorum to carry out its activities, since there are only 80 of its 150 members.
Only four Democrats stayed at their Austin headquarters.
Forcing absent legislators to return is a possibility, as the Texas Constitution requires a quorum of two-thirds of MPs present.
Another article allows the remaining legislators to force their peers to return or to impose punishments for their absence.
[Trump continues to promote false accusations of electoral fraud in Arizona]
To achieve their goal of blocking electoral reform, Democrats will have to spend more than three weeks in Washington;
the current special session in Austin expires on August 7.
The drastic decision to leave Texas has been made in the past.
Democrats have already used it to stop redistricting bills and in 1979 to block changes to the primary election rules.
In this way, the minority seeks to impose its power over the majority.
Democrats urged Republicans to make an exception to the rules regarding electoral reforms.
But Republicans see the regulations as necessary to prevent fraud, following the unsubstantiated claims of former President Donald Trump.
President Biden's electoral reform is stamped against the Republican wall in Congress
June 23, 202100: 24
Democrats argue that, without any proof of fraud, Republicans are simply trying to suppress voting among the populations that helped defeat Trump in the 2020 election.
