News & Commentary

Texas leads the country in the number of restrictive voting bills introduced in its current 2021 legislative session with 49 bills. Texas is already the hardest state in the country to vote, and these bills would only make it harder — and scarier — to participate in elections, especially for communities of color. 

House Bill 6 (HB 6) is no ordinary voter suppression bill. Not only would the proposed legislation make it much more difficult for Texans to vote, it would make voting potentially dangerous with a new series of extreme criminal penalties. 

This week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott delivered his annual State of the State address, a state-mandated speech meant to inform the people of Texas about the governor’s legislative and governing priorities. With more than 37,000 Texans dead from COVID-19, notably Abbott’s agenda did not include a single item to address the pandemic for regular Texans. It offered nothing to help people get vaccines more quickly, support hospitals and schools, nor make nursing homes safer. 

This piece was originally published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Today marks the opening of the 87th Texas Legislative Session — and it signals enormous opportunity and peril for civil liberties in Texas. With a tense national political climate, a pandemic devastating communities across Texas, and lingering racial unrest since the killing of George Floyd, this session will be one of the most challenging — and most important — we have seen in recent history. 

In the past year, we’ve witnessed so many agonizing examples of the brutal reality of systemic racism. We’ve mourned the loss of more than 270,000 American lives from a deadly pandemic. We’ve seen a dramatic shift in the ideological balance at the U.S. Supreme Court, placing abortion access, LGBTQ equality, and voting rights in peril. And threats to our democracy seem to be mounting. 

With just about a week to go until Election Day, Texas is already seeing record-shattering voter turnout, with millions of Texans heading to the polls.

This year, many Texans are choosing to cast their votes by mail. Voting by mail is a safe and reliable way to make your voice heard in this election, but there are several important things to know and key deadlines to remember.

This piece was originally published in the Austin-American Statesman.