{"id":225,"date":"2023-05-23T20:20:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T20:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/texas\/press-releases\/texas-house-passes-bills-targeting-harris-county-undermining-voters-choices\/"},"modified":"2023-05-23T20:20:34","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T20:20:34","slug":"texas-house-passes-bills-targeting-harris-county-undermining-voters-choices","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/texas\/press\/texas-house-passes-bills-targeting-harris-county-undermining-voters-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas House Passes Bills Targeting Harris County, Undermining Voters\u2019 Choices"},"template":"","class_list":["post-225","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":"","press_type":153,"authors":null,"related_issues":[117,406],"related_work":false,"location":52},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AUSTIN\u2014\u00a0 As the Texas legislature nears the end of its session, House lawmakers passed several election-related bills that will harm Texas voters Tuesday, including a measure that allows for a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> state takeover of the election office in the state\u2019s largest county.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the bills passed by the House are:\u00a0<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=SB1933\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1933<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0 a dangerous elections bill that would allow the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office to take over &amp; conduct unprecedented oversight of the administration for Harris County\u2019s elections officials, formerly a statewide impact.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=SB1070\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1070<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which would let Texas contract with a yet-to-be-identified vendor to check voter registration eligibility and leave ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center that has helped election administrators in several states keep up-to-date and accurate voter registration lists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=SB1750\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1750,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a bill seeking to abolish the Harris County Election Administrator\u2019s Office, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">making Harris County, home to Houston, the only large metropolitan county in Texas to not have elections administrators run<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> their local elections office.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SB 1750 will head to the governor for his signature while SB 1933 and SB 1070 need to have amendments added on during this week\u2019s debate agreed upon by the Senate before becoming law.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also today, the Texas Senate is scheduled to vote on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=HB1243\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">House Bill 1243<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a voting criminalization bill that will make it a felony punishable for up to 20 years in prison for those who may make simple or unintended mistakes while casting a ballot, with a lowered intent standard to enable the criminalization of mistakes.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cImportant guardrails were added to the House bills during last night\u2019s debate that mitigate the worst effects, but passage of these anti-voter bills show that the focus of the Texas legislature has been to create unnecessary restrictions and dilute the power of votes \u2013 in particular of Houston-area voters,\u201d said Katya Ehresman, voting rights program manager for Common Cause Texas.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur democracy works when we all have an opportunity to vote and every vote is counted,\u201d Ehresman said. \u201cBut Texas lawmakers are clearly afraid of that reality, which is why we see them so focused this legislative session on carving out a way for the state to take over the election administration of our largest county\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and enabling the state\u2019s restriction of access to the ballot for many Texans.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Common Cause Texas staff are available for media interviews. <\/span>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Texas House Passes Bills Targeting Harris County, Undermining Voters\u2019 Choices - Common Cause Texas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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