Texas GOP advances voting bill after Democrats’ holdout ends

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans advanced new voting restrictions Thursday night after months of protests by Democrats, who after returning from a 38-day walkout are now all but out of ways to stop a bill that includes a ban on drive-thru voting and would empower poll watchers.

The nearly 50-page bill passed the Texas House on a 79-37 mostly party-line vote, moving fast a week after Democrats ended their holdout. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says he will sign the measure that is on track to reach his desk by early September, if not sooner.

In what is now the GOP’s third try at passing the bill since May, the atmosphere was charged. For more than 12 hours Republicans defended the changes as safeguards while Democrats, who offered a raft of rejected attempts to soften the bill, continued to say it would disproportionately impact people of color. At one heated point Republican Dade Phelan, the House speaker, interrupted lawmakers to tell them not to accuse each other of racism — or even say the word.

But in the end, the bill easily passed, just as Democrats knew it would once they returned.

Texas is now set to become the last big GOP state to pass tighter voting laws driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. When one exchange Thursday turned to the violent Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Republican Kyle Biedermann, who was in Washington, D.C., that day, downplayed the attack and rejected that it was an insurrection.

In seeking to stop the bill, more than 50 Democrats had gone to Washington D.C., a destination they chose to press Congress on voting rights legislation. On Wednesday, the U.S. House passed federal voting rights legislation that congressional Democrats say is progress in their quest to fight back against voting restrictions advanced in states such as Texas. But...