Exchange Over âPurityâ of Vote Puts Texas G.O.P. Firebrand in Spotlight
Briscoe Cain stumbled through questions about âpurity of the ballot boxâ language in Texasâ voting bill, acknowledging he was unaware that it evoked Jim Crow policies of the past. He is the billâs sponsor.
Briscoe Cain, a Republican state legislator from Houston, drew widespread attention for an exchange over the phrase âpurity of the ballot boxâ in a bill restricting voting access.Credit.Eric Gay/Associated Press
May 12, 2021
AUSTIN, Texas â It was an awkward few minutes for Briscoe Cain, the conservative provocateur and handpicked Republican chair of the State House Elections Committee, as he fumbled through his defense last week of the restrictive new voting bill his party is moving through the Texas Legislature.
<p>Texas legislation invoked the "purity of the ballot box," a phrase critics argued harkened back to the era of Jim Crow and the White Primary. Historians say the phrase itself is obscure but the idea that white Texans are the preferred voting citizens has a long history in the state. </p>
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A New York State Secure Ballot Dropbox sits outside the James A. Farley U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Post Office as New York State and New York City legislators held a rally for their new legislation that would to allow local Boards of Elections to establish absentee ballot drop box locations across the state, in New York City, New York, U.S., August 31, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RC25PI9SZS43
The Texas House passed its version of the omnibus elections bill on a party-line vote in a marathon session that wrapped up just after 3 a.m. on Friday.
The bill is part of a nationwide trend of new GOP-backed, state-level voter restrictions that Republican lawmakers say are designed to preserve election integrity, despite no evidence of the existence of widespread voter fraud.
Texas Democrats Strike Jim Crow Purity of Ballot Box Language from GOP Voting Bill
Lawmakers struck the phrase from the bill after a Democratic representative pointed out its racist origins
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After their party’s 2020 presidential election loss, Republican-led legislatures across the country are scrambling to exclude more people from voting and make it more difficult to cast a ballot. In Texas, conservatives have been pushing a voting bill that included language from the state’s constitution that was used to justify disenfranchising the state’s Black voters, until a Democrat pointed out the wording’s racist roots, and the language was removed.
Rolling Stone Texas Democrats Strike Jim Crow ‘Purity of Ballot Box’ Language from GOP Voting Bill
Lawmakers struck the phrase from the bill after a Democratic representative pointed out its racist origins
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After their party’s 2020 presidential election loss, Republican-led legislatures across the country are scrambling to exclude more people from voting and make it more difficult to cast a ballot. In Texas, conservatives have been pushing a voting bill that included language from the state’s constitution that was used to justify disenfranchising the state’s Black voters, until a Democrat pointed out the wording’s racist roots, and the language was removed.