SB 1 was passed with the intent to suppress these votes. The legislation includes provisions that expand the power of partisan poll watchers, limit county election officials’ discretion to adopt safe and secure methods of voting, especially during a pandemic, make it more difficult for voters to receive assistance, and place restrictions on absentee ballots, ballot drop boxes, and early voting.

While Governor Abbott signs legislation designed to make it harder for Texans to vote, tens of thousands of our friends and family are in the hospital fighting for their lives because of his misplaced priorities. 

Just before midnight, the Texas State House passed SB 1, a bill that will make it harder for Texans to vote, particularly the elderly, people with disabilities, and Texans of color. The legislation was passed by a 79-37 vote with Republican legislators rushing in more than 30 amendments in a matter of hours.

Each day Governor Abbott and Republican state legislators continue their war on our right to vote, more of our fellow Texans’ lives are at risk because of our leaders' misplaced priorities. More than 75 hospitals have run out of ICU beds and more than 20,000 Texans are suffering from COVID-19.

Voting rights for all is something worth fighting like hell for and we thank state leaders like Senator Carol Alvarado for speaking up for every Texan. And while Senator Alvarado is not afraid to take a stand for voting rights, Republicans in the U.S. Senate, including Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, refuse to even allow debate on The For The People Act. The For The People Act is a transformative piece of legislation that will protect the very voting rights Governor Abbott works to take away from us.

On this day 56 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson, a proud Texan, signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The legislation was a victory made possible by the hundreds of thousands of grassroots voting rights advocates who never gave up their good fight, leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Diane Nash, and the late Congressman John Lewis.