legislation is something that s going to cause a lot of texans to have great difficulty when voting. the provision that you mentioned about how it bans unsolicited, unrequested vote by mail applications from being sent out by counties there is no downside to counties sending unrequested mail-in ballot applications. these are just applications. there are only positive effects that come from that, which is more voter engagement, more voting. and yet somehow they want to ban that. if seniors, who lack access to the internet, they are unable to request a mail-in ballot, should this piece because they don t have access, you know, they can t request one online, they can t find the phone numbers if this legislation is passed. because right now, there are seniors in texas who don t have access to the internet and they rely on counties sending them these unrequested mail-in ballot applications in order to vote. and also, just cutting the hours of voting, that effects the
themselves have filed and, in fact, they re pointing the finger at each other and not taking ownership of how these provisions actually got into this bill. so yes, now we have a kinder, gentler voter suppression bill that is being advanced by the republican majority in texas but it is still terrible. it still has a provision in it understand we have an attorney general in texas, an indicted attorney general who bragged that but for his effort to block harris county where houston is located from sending eligible applicants mail-in ballot applications, but for his effort trump would have lost texas in 2020. so we know what this is about. now this bill puts in it that that is a criminal activity for counties to send out applications to vote by mail to eligible voters when it is an unsolicited act by the county. so this is definitely an effort to put the hand on the scale and
yes, now we have a kinder, gentler voter suppression bill that is being advanced by the republican majority in texas but it is still terrible. it still has a provision in it. understand we have an attorney general in texas, an indicted attorney general who bragged that but for his effort to block harris county from sending to eligible applicants mail-in ballot applications, but for his effort, trump would have lost texas in 2020. the bill puts in it that that s a criminal act to send ballots to eligible voters when it s an unsolicited act by the county. this is an act to put the hand on the scale and for our republican majority to maintain power at the expense of the will of the people. such projection. it s unbelievable. thank you.
state representative trey martinez fisher, he s one of the democrats who led that walk out. representative, it s good to have you on this morning. thank you, jim. when you look at the changes in this bill republicans are going to try again, such as banning drive-thru voting, 24-hour voting a felony a felony to send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications. in your view, are these changes deli deliberately intended to reduce democratic voter turnout? voting is one of the most patriotic things we can do. texas seems to over and over again republicans want to criminalize voting behavior. obviously that doesn t encourage people to want to go out and vote. we re talking about simple mistakes. criminalizing behavior if you give somebody a ride to go vote. criminalizing behavior if you go help somebody apply for a mail ballot so they can vote absentee. republicans want to make that a crime. that certainly is going to discourage voting. as you know, we already lead the
equivalent to the largest genocide in history is completely not helpful in our effort to try to reach as many people and stop the spread of the virus. a new restrictive voting bill will be before texas state lawmakers. republicans made a last minute move to add the bill to the agenda after democrats blocked similar legislation in may. the new bill makes it a felony for an election official to send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, bans drive-thru and 24 hour voting an adding new requirements to voting by mail. republicans in 17 other states have passed restrictive voting bills since losing the presidential race. new warnings are in effect for north carolina and the mid-atlantic states as tropical storm elsa moves up the u.s. east coast. high winds caused a tree to fall on two cars in jacksonville, florida killing one person.