Thread by @JuddLegum

UPDATE

It's 7:40 PM local time in Austin, Texas

The legislature has LESS THAN 5 HOURS to pass its voter suppression bill

House Dems have some procedural moves that give them a shot to kill the bill by blocking a vote until midnight

I'll keep this thread updated the best I can

House Republicans in Texas are apparently trying to convince Democrats to allow them to pass the bill tonight because the gov could call a special session later and make the bill worse

But the bill is already very bad and Dems say they aren't buying it

https://twitter.com/PhillipMartin/status/1399156860708605952?s=19

3. Republicans appointed an all-white conference committee to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate bills and the committee added a provision, not considered in either chamber, to ban voting on Sundays until 1PM

A surgical strike against "Souls to the Polls"

4. An earlier version of this bill, SB7, referred to efforts to maintain the "purity of the ballot box" -- which was literally the same language used to justify Jim Crow restrictions

That language has been removed but the substance is the same or worse

5. You can watch a livestream of the proceedings here: tlchouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph…

6. Because the conference committee added in new voting restrictions that weren't considered by either chamber, the House must pass an out-of-bounds resolution to proceed

This resolution was challenged in a point-of-order by a Texas Democrat as insufficiently detailed

7. Now that technical point-of-order must be considered by the parliamentarian, eating up precious time. It's after 8PM now in Austin. Republicans have less than four hours left to pass this bill before it dies

8. The point of order was withdrawn. I'm not sure why.

Now @travisfortexas is going over the "out of bounds" portion of the bill.

Notably, he has not addressed the provision that bans voting on Sunday until 1PM. No one has ever explained why that is necessary.

9. @travisfortexas never addressed the restriction on Sunday voting and refuses to take any questions on the changes.

Democracy in action!

10. UPDATE

Democrats defeated the bill by breaking quorum, denying Republicans the ability to hold a vote before midnight

https://twitter.com/BucyForTexas/status/1399220414807777284