After weeks of debate and political maneuvering, the nation's next showdown over state voting rights lands in Texas on Thursday, when the Republican-backed House Bill 6 - which seeks to revise the state's election laws - heads to a floor vote.
As written, HB 6 states the slotxo download androidpath to ensuring "election integrity and security" will come through "increasing criminal penalties" and "creating criminal offenses," which Democrats and voting rights activists said amounts to voter suppression tactics that would disproportionately affect communities of color .
We predict that if these provisions become law, that you're going to have Anglo-watchers-slash-vigilantes disrupting polling places in primarily places where people of color vote (from) inside the polling place, and that voters will feel so uncomfortable. that they will simply leave without casting their ballot, "said Nina Perales, who serves as vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, during a Wednesday press call.
In its current form, the bill makes it a state felony for election officials to send out mail-voting applications to voters if they did not individually request the forms.
HB 6 also requires people who help voters cast their ballots to submit documentation describing why the voter needed help, even if the voter needed assistance due to medical reasons. The person assisting the voter is also required to submit their own personal contact information and must include their relationship to the voter.
Additionally, the bill expands the access granted to poll watchers within polling places, and states that a poll watcher can only be removed "if the poll watcher engages in activity that would constitute an offense related to election fraud."