Eye on the Lege: Inside the 87th Texas Legislature – Episode 2: Voting Rights and Restrictions

[00:00:00] This is policy on purpose, a podcast produced by the LBJ school of public affairs at the university of Texas at Austin, we take you behind the scenes of policy with the people who helped shape it for more visit LBJ dot U, Texas study to you. Welcome and thanks for joining us for our second podcast series on the text.
Victoria: This legislature. My name is Victoria de Francesco Soto, and I am the assistant Dean for civic engagement at the LBJ school of public affairs. And I’m so happy to be here today with former Congressman Beto. O’Rourke an adjunct assistant professor here at the LBJ school. Welcome Bethel.
Beto: Vicky. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me about one of the most important issues taking place in Texas right now.
It’s it’s an honor to be with you. Thanks so much for that though. And you know, this is one of the most important issues here in Texas. And also nationally, just before we got on the [00:01:00] podcast, I went to check my numbers and I saw that as of the beginning of this month, there are 361 restrictive voter provisions in 47 States.
And this is what blew me away. That is eight. 40% increase of the number of restrictive voting bills since February. So this is something that is nationally a trend, and we know that for better or for worse and policy. We see contagion and here in Texas. We have two bills that are currently being considered in the house and in the Senate.
So with that national level perspective, we know what happened in Georgia. We know that it’s not just these bills are being introduced, but they’re also being passed, but it don’t help us understand what the provisions of the Texas voter integrity slash voter restriction bills are. [00:02:00] I’m so glad that you started with the national context, because it’s only there that you understand just how pernicious these efforts are.
When, when you look at those 361 restrictive voting measures in 47 state legislatures. You see the single greatest concerted attack on democracy and voting rights since the voting rights act was passed in 1965 by president Lyndon Baines Johnson. In fact, it looks a lot like the Jim Crow that proceeded the historic civil rights act in 64 and voting rights act in the following year.
And it’s a big reason that a lot of people are referring to this as Jim Crow. 2.0, because so many of these voter suppression efforts and voter intimidation efforts are aimed at black voters, Latino voters, voters, and communities of color voters with disabilities, lower income voters, the very young voters in our communities, those who [00:03:00] in, in many ways, Have been marginalized or find themselves at the margins of access to economic power or educational access or healthcare or so many other things that you need to be successful in this country.
And in the case of Texas, there are two bills in particular, one in the Texas Senate, SB seven and one in the Texas house, HB six, that would take a state that is already 50th. Dead last in ease of access for voting. That’s a designation bestowed by the election law journal. This state already has 750 polling place closures over the last eight years, twice as many as in any other state.
And most of those closures concentrated in the fastest growing black and Brown neighborhoods. You have the most restrictive voter ID laws on the books in the country. Right here in Texas, you have what federal judges have described as a [00:04:00] racial gerrymander, where black and Brown voters were drawn out of congressional districts to diminish the impact and the power and the likelihood that they would vote at all on top of all of that.
And in many other restrictive measures, they’re now proposing to do. The following one do away with 24 hour voting. This is important because as pioneered by Harris County in 2020, this allowed shift workers in a state where the minimum wage is $7 and 25 cents an hour shift workers who might be working a second or even third shift of the day and getting off work at 10:00 PM or 2:00 AM or 4:00 AM to be able to vote perhaps for the first time.
In their lives. This opportunity for shift workers almost by definition, tend to be lower income, lower earning workers. That opportunity to vote will be. Taken away. There’s also new restrictions on early voting under the guise of [00:05:00] quote unquote standardizing voting procedures and operations in Texas. It would make it harder to vote early, especially in some of our big.
Urban counties, which happened to be a majority minority counties in the state of Texas. There are in addition, 15 new or enhanced criminal penalties under the election code. This is important because we know in the history of election law. Enforcement, it has been targeted at black and Latino voters. In fact, our attorney general, Ken Paxton has stood up and election fraud unit within the attorney General’s office.
72% of their prosecutions have been of black voters or Latino voters far outside of their proportion in the general population. So these are just a few of the challenges that these voter suppression. Tactics will pose to voters in this [00:06:00] state. And then the last one that I’d like to touch on just briefly, those voters with disabilities in the state of Texas.
It will be now much harder for them to be able to cast a ballot. One iteration of this legislation was going to force those voters to prove their disability through a note from a doctor or the social security administration or the VA. They’ll still have to have anyone who assist them in filling out a ballot at home, provide some form.
A voter ID. And in connection with that so-called poll Watchers will be given free reign inside of polling places. And for those of us who understand our history in Texas, we know that poll Watchers have very often been a force for intimidation and suppression. Again, against lower income voters, black and Latino voters.
This new law would even allow these so-called poll Watchers to videotape or film. Voters in the polling place as [00:07:00] they seek assistance in filling out their ballot. So a host of really negative voter suppressive provisions in these bills. The good news is that it is not yet law and there’s still time for everyday Texans Republicans, Democrats independence, to be able to step up and speak out and try to stop this from becoming law.
This piece about intimidation, I think is what brings together all the different bullets within these two bills. Right? Because if you look at the bill, there’s about half a dozen to a dozen of these logistical barriers, right? So you pointed out the closing down of the 24 hour voting centers. The decreasing of the ballot drop-off locations and right.
We can just go down the line, tick, tick, tick, all the things that make it logistically harder to vote, but you add them all together. And what worries me is that larger cloud of [00:08:00] intimidation and it’s intimidating to me and I’m, you know, civic engagement, political science is my life, but I think about people who are.
First-time voters, maybe they, you know, have not been able to get as much civic engagement as they would’ve liked. And so they’re unsure about the process and when they’re hearing all of these logistical hurdles and the criminal penalties that they may be subject to when they’re sitting on the fence and deciding, well, should I go cast the vote or not?
They may side. With, you know what, just staying home, because what if I mess up? What if I fill out the form wrong and I go to jail. So, I mean, I think that is the piece that keeps me up at night is that intimidation, which then leads to not participating, which in effect, as we know, regrettably apathy is a vicious cycle.
If you don’t do [00:09:00] something, it’s easier to just keep in that status quo. And I think that that is. Part of the reason that it is so important to not only stop this in its tracks, but figure out what do we do to actually promote voting. You put forward that dubious honor that we have of being last in the state.
And as we saw. In this past election, Texas voters came out, even though we’re 50th, because there’s a hunger in the state to vote. There’s a hunger of us to have a voice. And in terms of those voices of Texans from all walks of life. But do I know that you and your work over the last couple of years, Now with your organization have been talking to those people.
You’ve been hearing these voices. And I wanted to ask you a little bit about what folks on the ground are saying about these bills, what their worries are and what they want to see when it comes to voting in Texas, how they want to be heard. I was happened to [00:10:00] run into somebody who was going to testify at the Capitol.
On these bills, he’s, he’s a veteran and his father is also a veteran. You know, both of them have served this country. They put their life on the line for America in effect, willing to lose their lives in service to this country. And this veteran approached me. So I, I am so angry. I’m so angry that my country, my state, which I served is now going to want me to prove.
The disability that I earned in service to country. Now, whether that disability is post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury or some other grievous injury born in battle for the United States of America, that person has proven themselves. For them to not be taken at their word. He was telling me, he says, you know, for you to ask me to go to the VA, I don’t want to go to the VA anymore.
I don’t want to go see a doctor. I don’t, I don’t want to have to get a note. I just want to be able to vote, participate in this election. He was so angry and it moved him literally. To drive [00:11:00] down to the Capitol and wait, you know, 14 hours in order to have his two minutes, which is all that anyone from the public was granted before the committee of jurisdiction, to be able to tell his story.
I was just this weekend in Laredo, Texas in Webb County. And I went there, you know, it’s a 10 hour drive from where I live in El Paso. I drove down there because I wanted to meet those voters in one of the lowest. Voter turnout counties in Texas in America, for that matter, you know, only 50% of registered voters participated in the most important election of our lifetimes in 2020.
And that was up from 46% in 2016. If you look at eligible voters, the percentage is even much, much lower, but I went door to door, you know? W why have you not participated in elections? What would it take for you to participate going forward? And to the point that you just made. There were so many voters who said, you know, with these new laws that they’re making around voter fraud, and so [00:12:00] many were, were so smart to this issue.
They said, I don’t think there’s any voter fraud taking place in Texas. And in fact, statistically, there’s a 4e-06% incidence of voter fraud in Texas, you know, greater likelihood you’ll be struck by lightning. But these voters said, look with these new laws to the point that you just made Vicki, I don’t know.
That I’m not going to get tangled up in this. I don’t know why they want to keep us from voting. And I just, I don’t want to deal with this stuff. So it’s having the intended effect. If we go back. A hundred years to 1923, the Texas state legislature passes a law that says that black Texans cannot participate in the democratic primary, which is the only election that counted.
So literally in black and white in state law, they were doing everything they could to stop black Texans from voting since then, although it’s no longer in the law in black and white. The intention and the outcome and the effect is [00:13:00] just the same under the guise of what they’ll say is standardizing our elections by making sure we have the same polling place hours and the same number of voting machines and the same drop-off boxes in each County.
They are surgically and precisely targeting those voters that they do not want to participate in these elections. And I’m afraid that even the proposal of the laws and the conversations that are taking place or having somewhat of a chilling effect in people’s decision to participate in the next election.
So not only must we stop this, which we must, and I think we can, but I think we have to also offer something much bigger. So. If democracy is being attacked, then I think democracy must go on the offense and we must expand voting rights and best opportunity to do that right now is at the federal level where you have a bill pending in the Senate, Senate bill one for the people act, which would have automatic.
Yeah. Same-day voter registration, which would [00:14:00] do far more to bring more people into our democracy. Some estimates have up to 60 to 70 million new voters. Brought in and would stop States like Texas from being able to prevent their own citizens from taking part in their politics and in their elections.
So these are some of the stories I’m hearing, but these are some of the things that we can do to stop this. So we’re seeing, you know, the usual suspects are Republican state leaders or democratic state leaders advocates within this mix. But since. We saw the voter bills path in Georgia. We’ve seen a much more prominent presence of the business community bit, though.
Right. They ended up coming on afterwards and then signing and taking positions. And what we’ve seen here in Texas. Is the business community being asked to take a stand now while things are still being considered. So I wanted to get your take on this though, because I know [00:15:00] that you are engaging with a lot of folks on the ground, but briefly I want to mention a study that just came out.
That was calculating. The losses of having restrictive voter laws in a state like Texas. And there are a bunch of different loss calculations, but one that really struck me was that in terms of economic loss from boycotts, for example, the major league baseball, moving their games from Atlanta, just general economic development being steered away from these States with more restrictive voting practices.
This study done by the Paramin group estimates. Essentially the short term effect would be a 16.7 billion annual gross product loss. And then let’s translate that into jobs. That’s 150,000 fewer jobs here in Texas. And that just balloons out. If we go out to 2045, where that expands to 90 billion and over half a million jobs [00:16:00] lost.
So we see these numbers and black and white, we know the impact now, but are you seeing that the business community is. Open to this. Are they leaning one way or the other, or is the political pressure from one side of the aisle too? Great. It’s a really interesting development. And as you pointed out in Georgia, the business community came out, but they came out too late or at least some members of the business committee came out, you know, Coca-Cola Delta airlines, major league baseball, which pulled the all-star game from Georgia and then notably Patagonia, which not only, you know, issued a strongly worded statement against these voter suppressive measures, but actually donated a million dollars towards.
Groups who are fighting voter suppression and fighting to expand the franchise in Texas. Thankfully, some members of the business community have stepped up before it’s too late. And notably Dell has done that. American airlines has done that, but we’ve seen at [00:17:00] least in my last count and maybe things have changed, but at and T Southwest airlines, Pepsi, Frito-Lay other prominent, Texas headquartered businesses I have yet to do.
More than offer somewhat neutral sounding statements that really do not take a side. And, you know, we, we all know the quote from the Inferno, from Dante’s Inferno, that president John Kennedy was supposed to like so much about those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis and how the hottest places in hell are reserved for them.
You know, I really think that there’s not a greater moral crisis, at least when it comes to our democracy. Which is the foundation of all of our success in this country. That the fact that people from all walks of life can together decide who will represent them in the course and the direction that this state will take.
There’s not a bigger crisis right now facing this democracy. Then this attack in Texas and the attacks that are happening concurrently in 46 other States, and the attack that we saw. On [00:18:00] January 6th of this year, we’re literally the capital of the United States was stormed successfully for the first time, since the war of 1812, five people, including a Capitol police officer were killed.
The vice president of the United States of America was very nearly hung in a makeshift gallows stood up on the site, members of Congress, nearly murdered. This is happening and we should take no comfort. Yeah. In the fact that there was a successful transition into a new presidency that of Joe Biden, the threat is not over.
And in fact, I think it’s only accelerating and becoming more dire. And so really it requires all of us, those in elected office, those everyday citizens who make their way to the Capitol to testify. And whether we like to admit it or not, those who hold a lot of the power in our politics today, which are corporations.
And so this is a chance for them to do some good. And I’m grateful for those that have, and I’m hoping that those who have yet to step up soon will. LBJ was the [00:19:00] father of the voting rights act. And this is something that I am very proud of to be affiliated with an institution, bearing his name, given that legacy.
But regrettably, we have seen. As a result of litigation of Supreme court rulings, that the key protections within the voting rights act specifically, section five, have been done away with. And I think that this is where States. Come in to the limelight where it is really up to the States. There’s no longer a federal government that can check States behaving badly.
It’s incumbent upon the individuals within the States to check that on power because the protections we had had for four decades are no longer there. And I think for me, it’s always been important, but it’s more important than ever now because there’s no net. This happens. I mean, it could go up to the DOJ, but we have a sense [00:20:00] of the ideological composition of the highest court in the land.
And if I were a betting woman, I would say that there probably wouldn’t be a check a protection to the voting rights that we are seeking to protect. But as we’re winding down our time on this podcast, I want to ask you about. Things that folks listening to this podcast can do both in terms of actionables and information sources that they can seek out to mobilize those around them and take action.
So glad you brought this back to Lyndon Baines Johnson and the fact that our fellow Texan was in large part responsible for securing voting rights through the passage of that act in 1965, and really helping to usher in. Our first real attempt at a multi-racial multi-ethnic democracy in the United States.
And the fact that for the first time, since 1965, all of that work that he was able to see through, and of course, which he saw through because he was inspired and was following the [00:21:00] example of John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. And Fannie Lou Hamer and others who did so much to make sure that this country would.
Take this action. We are the heirs, the inheritors of their sacrifice, their struggle, their courage, their victories, when it comes to voting rights, especially those of us here in Texas thinking of LBJ. And what we do with this inheritance, I think will define us forever. So no state. More than Texas, I think has more at stake in the outcome of this.
And I hope that those who are listening understand that they have the power to not only stop this bad legislation, but to be a force for good legislation that will actually expand and reinforce voting rights in this state. And in this country, you can reach out. To your representative in the state legislature.
And it’s important that you reach out both to your house representative and your, your state Senator to let them know how you feel [00:22:00] about HB six and SB seven. If you want them to vote against it, you’ve got to let them know. They’ve got to hear from you in that, but you can also do this on the positive side.
You can call your member of Congress in the United States, Congress, and your us Senator. And tell them that you want H R one Senate bill one, it’s called the, for the people act to pass if it does. And if it’s signed into law by president Biden, who has indicated his support already, then what you just described Vicky as that gutting of the voting rights act and the 2013 Shelby decision that removed section five and pre-clearance, and kind of left us in the States.
To our own devices, there will now be greater protection for voters. And if that is also compounded by, or if we include the John Lewis voting rights act, which restores some of those preclearance provisions, then we really have not only restored those protections that we once had under the 65 voting rights act, we’ve actually [00:23:00] expanded them going forward.
And I would love nothing more than for Texas and Texans to lead the way on that. So those are some things that we can all do. Yeah. And let me check on to that, but also speaking now, putting pressure on our elected officials here at the state level, in terms of fair redistricting, because we know that, you know, this is the year where the maps are drawn and how the maps are drawn.
Depends that will dictate the strength of one’s vote. Whether one’s vote is diluted. Or not. And I think that in addition to these voting bills, these voting restriction bills that we’ve seen that have a suppressive effect, we can’t lose sight of the more indirect suppressive effect of lines that are drawn, that pack people in.
I also would argue that it has an effect of creating more divisiveness because you packed folks in who are Republicans and Democrats, and there is no. Need for them [00:24:00] to talk to one another. So as we’re coming up, you know, we have the Texas legislative session for a couple of more weeks is to also not lose sight of the effect of redistricting.
And, and with that though, I want to thank you. I’m so happy. You’re part of the LBJ school family. And thank you for the work that you do and for your voice on these issues. Likewise, thank you. Thanks for everything that you’re doing right now. And for bringing me into the conversation. I really appreciate it.
Take care. Bye bye. This is policy on purpose, a podcast produced by the LBJ school of public affairs at the university of Texas at Austin, we take you behind the scenes of policy with the people who helped shape it to learn more. Visit LBJ dot U Texas study EDU, and follow us on Twitter or Facebook at the LBJ school.
Thank you for listening.