Texas tightened voting rights

Enlarge image

Election Bill Debate at Austin Texas Capitol (Aug. 26)

Photo: Eric Gay / AP

There were arguments for months, with some very public protests.

But now the parliament in the US state of Texas has passed the controversial change in electoral law.

Both chambers of parliament approved the plans on Tuesday with a majority of Republicans.

Among other things, the law is intended to expand the power of partisan election observers and prohibit certain voting methods - such as voting in drive-in polling stations, i.e. from the car.

Suffrage experts note that these programs were primarily used by black voters.

It is also prohibited that official bodies send unsolicited applications for a postal vote to eligible voters.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott wrote on Twitter Tuesday that he was looking forward to signing the law.

This protects the integrity of the elections.

Critics, on the other hand, see the changes as an attack on democracy.

The prominent Democrat and former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke from Texas, for example, spoke of "voter suppression."

In the USA, the right to vote, which is largely shaped by the states, is extremely competitive.

Several republican-ruled states have already passed regulations or are pursuing regulations that critics believe would make voting more difficult.

There is a calculation behind this: When the hurdles for voting are higher, it is often mainly members of minorities who stay at home in the USA - and these groups are often more likely to vote for Democrats.

The Republicans, on the other hand, pretend that their reforms are only about making electoral fraud more difficult.

In truth, election fraud is very rare in the USA and can sometimes be punished with long prison sentences.

The political controversy is an aftermath of the polarizing election year 2020. To this day, the Republican ex-President Donald Trump does not recognize that he clearly lost the election to the Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump claims he was robbed of victory by election fraud.

His camp failed in court with dozens of lawsuits against the election results.

Walk-out could only delay voting

However, many Republicans stuck to Trump's story that there had been irregularities in the elections, and subsequently pushed forward legislative initiatives that, in the opinion of Democrats and civil rights activists, curtail the right to vote.

The current case in Texas is an example of how the party is generating political advantage from the baseless claims of Trump and his supporters.

Several times in the past few months, Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives had fled to Washington, DC, to prevent the electoral law.

Due to their absence, the attendance quota of two thirds required for a vote could not be met.

jok / dpa