NBC News: Texas Republicans revive voting restriction bills to begin special session

The Texas Legislature began a special session Thursday morning that Republicans are promising will allow them to enact new restrictive voting rules intended to prevent fraud.

As they began a session that’s expected to last a month, Republicans filed a pair of bills, House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1. The bills are similar to one Democrats blocked in May when they staged a late-night walkout that forced the Legislature to adjourn before the measures could pass. Democrats said they did so because the bill would have resulted in voter suppression, particularly of voters of color and disabled voters.

The House and Senate versions filed Thursday are similar. Both would require that voters have identification for mail voting and would ban drive-thru and overnight options for early voting. Harris County, a heavily minority and liberal area of the state, embraced those expanded early voting options during the 2020 general election.

Both versions of the bill would add criminal penalties for voting law violations and would empower partisan poll watchers. …

The Senate bill will have its first public hearing on Saturday morning, according to a notice.

Opponents of the bills say the quick scheduling undermines the public’s ability to offer meaningful input.

“Anyone who wants to go testify, read the bill, they’re going to have 24-36 hours to do it,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a group working to defeat the legislation. “It definitely feels like a complete subversion of democracy to try and get their voter suppression bill passed.”