Texas Gov. Abbott signs new GOP-backed voting restrictions into law [Video]

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has signed Republican-backed voting restrictions into law on Tuesday.
• While Abbott said that the law aims to combat voter fraud, President Joe Biden called it an “all-out assault” on American democracy.
• The Texas law enforces numerous restrictions on voting, which makes voting difficult for voters with disabilities or language barriers, and voters with no access to polling stations.

Texas, the second-most populous U.S. state and the largest controlled by Republicans, became the latest state to enforce Republican-backed voting restrictions.

Governor Greg Abbott (R) declared on Tuesday’s signing ceremony that the law “ensures that every eligible voter will have the opportunity to vote,” while making it “harder for people to cheat at the ballot box in Texas.”

However, critics argued that the law will make voting harder for Black and Hispanic voters, who make up important voting blocs for Democrats.

Democratic lawmakers fled the state on July 12 in an attempt to break the legislative quorum and delay action on the measure, but the Republican-controlled state legislature approved the measure on Aug. 31 in a special legislative session.

This year, at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws restricting voting access after former President Donald Trump claimed that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Mail-in voting will be tougher in Texas, since the legislation added new identification requirements for such voting and prevented officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications.

More restrictions include: limited early voting, disallowed drive-through and 24-hour voting locations, restricts who can assist voters with disabilities or language barriers, and empowers partisan poll-watchers.

President Joe Biden called out the legislation as “an all-out assault on our democracy.”

On Tuesday, civil rights organizations challenged the law in three separate lawsuits filed on federal and state courts in Texas.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, and Texas community development groups were among the plaintiffs who filed two federal lawsuits against Texas officials in San Antonio and state capital Austin.

They argued that the law burdens one’s right to vote and violates the U.S. Constitution’s First, 14th, and 15th Amendments. They added that the Texas law violates a federal law called the Voting Rights Act by limiting minority voters’ voting access.

The third lawsuit was filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in state court in Houston. They argued that the law violates provisions of the Texas Constitution protecting the rights to vote, due process, equal protection under the law, and freedom of speech and expression.

Damon Hewitt, the group’s president and executive director, called voting restriction laws “the scourge of state-sanctioned voter suppression.”

According to election experts, incidents of voter fraud are rare in the country. Officials also pointed out that the Republicans presented no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Source: Reuters