Governor Greg Abbott appears to be doubling down on his promise to arrest the 59 democrats that fled the state of Texas to prevent the Republican majority from having a quorum for their House vote on their proposed election provisions legislation.
However, since the arrests can only be made within the state of Texas – at which point the democrats that fled would likely be returning to business as usual once their PR stunt had rotated out of the public consciousness. This being the case, it has lead to, alongside partisan cheer-leading and muck-flinging between those entranced by the theatrics, what actual benefit the arrests would have aside from Abbott not backing down from his word.
The fact of the matter is this: The proposed bill adds ID requirements for mail-in voting, prevents the mailing of ballots to those who have not submitted a request for one, grants expanded access to polling stations by poll watchers, and bans the practice of “drive-thru” voting. All measures create a chain of custody. These measures are not acceptable to the Texas democrats, even though they were, perhaps too generously, given a number of concessions in the bill as well.
Apparently insistence upon “bipartisanship” is only made when you don’t get everything you ask for.
The bill has been systematically smeared as a “voter suppression bill”, largely by those who believe that Russia is capable of choosing the outcome of entire, national-level elections, while sanctimoniously advocating for elections to be as laissez-faire and unprotected as possible. These irreconcilable stances being shared by a growing population of refugees from blue cities, as well as many out-of-state commentators looking to influence the state-level politics of Texas.
If Governor Abbott really wanted to put the screws on the fleeing democrats, he should hit them where every politician hurts most – their wallet and reputation. During a special session – of which Abbott has alluded to many of – a proposal should be made to dock the pay of or lay the groundwork for removal of representatives who falsely believe they can collect a tax-payer-funded paycheck while out of state and not doing their job.