Governor Abbott Signs Republican-backed Voting Restriction Bill

Sept 7 (Reuters) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed into law voting restrictions that Republican backers say are intended to combat voter fraud but that critics contend are aimed at making it harder for Democratic-leaning minorities to cast ballots.

Opponents have vowed to quickly file lawsuits in federal courts across Texas challenging the legality of the measure, arguing that it violates federal laws including the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It is the latest in a series of laws passed this year in Republican-led states creating new barriers to voting following Republican former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

The new law, which Abbott signed at a ceremony in the East Texas city of Tyler, prohibits drive-through and 24-hour voting locations and adds new identification requirements for mail-in voting.

It also restricts who can help voters requiring assistance because of language barriers or disabilities, prevent officials from sending out unsolicited mail-in ballot applications and empower partisan poll-watchers.

The Texas measure won final approval in the Republican-controlled state legislature on Aug. 31 in a special legislative session. Passage came after dozens of Democratic lawmakers fled the state on July 12 to break the legislative quorum, delaying action for more than six weeks.

Abbott and other Texas Republicans have said that the measure balances election integrity with ease of voting.

“It ensures that every eligible voter will have the opportunity to vote,” Abbott said at the signing ceremony. “It does also, however, make sure that it is harder for people to cheat at the ballot box in Texas.”

Election experts have said voting fraud is rare in the United States. Democratic opponents of the Texas measure said Republican legislators during debate over the measure presented no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has likened the voting restrictions enacted in Republican-led states to the so-called Jim Crow laws that once disenfranchised Black voters in Southern states. Democrats in the U.S. Congress have not mustered the votes to pass national voting rights legislation that would counter the new state laws.

Democrats and voting rights advocates have said that the Texas legislation, formally called SB1, disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic voters – important voting blocs for Democrats – a claim denied by its Republican backers.

“Our clients will not waste a minute in fighting against this,” said Ryan Cox, a senior staff attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project. “We anticipate that numerous organizations and groups of lawyers are going to be challenging different provisions of SB1 for different reasons.”

Texas Democratic state Senator Borris Miles said the measure targets innovations used in Houston that helped drive record turnout in the state’s most populous city in last November’s election, including the 24-hour polls and drive-through voting as officials sought to make casting a ballot safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Will Dunham)