(Austin) Democrats, elected from Texas, in the United States, on Sunday evening, blocked the state’s adoption of a restrictive law to organize electoral elections, which US President Joe Biden described as an “attack on democracy.”
The law, wanted by Republicans like those already adopted in Georgia and Florida, is officially intended to make elections safer by prohibiting “direct” voting or by placing numerous restrictions on voting times and mail voting.
But these restrictions often target voting-friendly provisions that are especially popular with minorities, including African Americans in general who are more pro-democracy.
And the Democrats, elected in large numbers, left Sunday evening the regular vote for this law, and the necessary quorum was not reached. The session had to be postponed, dampening Republicans’ hopes of seeing the law pass through the current legislature.
However, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said he was ready to call a special session to pass the law.
“The Republicans have arrived intent on passing a law that would manipulate our democracy in their favor,” Jessica Gonzalez, a local Democrat, wrote on Twitter in the evening. “Tonight, the Texas Democrats drew a line and made it clear that we will fight day and night, with all the means at our disposal, for your right to vote.”
Republican elected officials, who claim they want to make elections safer, often invoke fraud accusations that continue to push former President Donald Trump, who asserts without the slightest evidence that the vote won by Joe Biden in November was “stolen” from him.
Since the presidential election, bills limiting access to voting in states have multiplied on a Republican initiative.
“This is part of an attack on democracy that we have seen a lot this year,” Biden said on Saturday, adding that he was targeting “disproportionately” African Americans and other minorities.
Mr. Biden has called on the US Congress again to adopt two texts to the contrary that are supposed to promote the expression of the right to vote for all Americans, but their adoption is complicated by the narrow majority of Democrats.
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