Texas is about to pass a ban on voting | Election Issues
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The United Nations human rights group says the law will make it ‘harder and more dangerous to vote’, especially for people of color.
The U.S. government in Texas is close to issuing a statement opposing voting bans former US President Joe Biden he rebuked as a “democratic revolution” that could harm black people as well as people of another race.
The bill, which Texas Republican ambassador Greg Abbott said he wanted to sign a law if passed, would help end voting, empower voters and reduce voting Sunday, while many churchgoers go to the polls, among other restrictions.
The Texas parliament passed a bill in the 18-13 vote just after 6 a.m. (11:00 GMT) Sunday after a midnight debate, The New York Times reported, and the House is expected to do so in the afternoon. The parliamentary session is almost over in the middle of the night.
Human rights groups have ridiculed the law – formerly known as Senate Bill 7, or SB7 – as a threat to voting.
“This money will make it harder and harder to vote – in a state that is already a difficult place to vote in the country,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas said in a statement on Saturday.
The bill is one of a number of laws enforced by Republican lawmakers in the US to ban voting after the 2020 presidential election, which former President Donald Trump falsely claimed was marred by voting fraud.
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Biden said the law was “wrong and not American”.
“It’s the part of democracy that we’ve seen so often this year – and it’s often targeted at black and black Americans,” the US President said.
The president of the Texas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colors People (NAACP), Gary Bledsoe, told Sunday that “the order to bring us back to Jim Crow’s time is being observed on Black Wall Street Massacre Day”.
Murder in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning May 31, 1921, left black people in the city in ruins as a white mob burned down houses and killed at least 300 people.
“Our voices need to be heard today and always,” Bledsoe said in a statement.
Texas law would prohibit Texans from using the 24-hour voting booth or voting on the go-to-get-off in parking lots and garages. It can also prevent mobile units or small houses from being used as polling stations.
The law also establishes new requirements for candidates who want to vote by mail and may prevent election officials from sending unsolicited votes to voters. It can also make the removal of distraction viewers more difficult.
Florida, Georgia, and Arizona have also approved new bans on voting in recent months.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which adheres to national voting laws, says 14 countries across the country have enacted 22 laws banning voting opportunities between January 1 and May 14 this year, while many others were working through state law.
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