Side: Affirmative
Issue: Greg Abbott has now officially signed SB (Senate Bill) 1 into law. This bill has been promoted by Republicans as a bill to help protect the election from fraudulent votes, but Democrats argue that this law unnecessarily restricts voting in large cities and disproportionately affects minority voting.
Background: This bill primarily affects and restricts drive-thru and overnight voting, which were adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. These methods were highly criticized by Republicans, with them claiming these methods to be less safe due to the lack of poll watchers. However, Democrats in Texas have put into action several lawsuits that aim to strike this bill down. The main goal of this law is to protect elections from potential fraud and to re-establish confidence in elections from voters. This is following previous elections that have led to a huge drop in voters confidence in said elections. This loss of confidence isn’t good, as having confidence and integrity in elections is the backbone of a solid democracy. Our citizens should be confident that the elections are completely legit and display the will of the people.
Current Law: While this bill is new to Texas, plenty of other states have passed laws that have similar effects on voting methods. There have been similar bills ratified into state law in Georgia (Georgia SB 202), in Iowa ( IA. S.F. 413) and in Kansas (KS H.B. 2183).
Recommendation: The recommendation in this issue brief is that the bill is allowed to pass into law in order to protect the sanctity of voting. These methods introduced during the pandemic might have been more convenient for voters, but the pandemic is now coming to a close, meaning there is little reason to keep using these voting methods. There are vaccines out for COVID-19, and if somebody would like to vote, then it isn’t unreasonable to restrict voting to a place where poll watchers will be able to make sure the votes are fair and aren’t fraudulent in any way. The last election was one of the most controversial elections in American history, and it is clear we should make sure our elections are 100 percent verified and held with integrity.
References:
https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/confidence-americans-will-trust-result-election-october-2020
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/01/texas-voting-bill-greg-abbott/
Issue Brief: SB1
Side: Negative
Issue: Greg Abbott has now officially signed SB (Senate Bill) 1 into law. This bill has been promoted by Republicans as a bill to help protect the election from fraudulent votes, but Democrats argue that this law unnecessarily restricts voting in large cities and disproportionately affects minority voting.
Background: This bill will have the largest effect in counties that have a high population, including Harris and Travis county, and will benefit counties that are more rural and less populated. While Republicans will say this bill is solely for protecting our elections, it isn’t unreasonable to question their motives for passing a bill like this, as it will benefit them tremendously in the upcoming 2022 elections. Small, rural areas are mostly Republican, while the bill will hurt voter turnout in large population centers, which are mostly made up of more minority and Democrat voters. When looking at what this bill will do, it is almost certainly going to give Republicans an unfair advantage in the upcoming election. While Republicans have made an uproar about voter fraud, the numbers don’t seem to back this notion. Only 197 cases of voter fraud were made between the years of 2015 and 2020, which even if unreported, is unlikely to cause much sway in a state with over 17 million registered voters. This bill seems to only be passed to benefit Republicans and was pushed by the facade that it will remedy an almost nonexistent voter fraud problem.
Current Law: In the affirmative part of this issue brief, I listed laws that have also been passed in other states that are similar to SB1. However, these states are overwhelmingly Republican, and it is known that restrictive voter laws like SB1 benefit the Republican voter turnout, while also simultaneously hurting minority and Democrat voting.
Recommendation: This bill should not be allowed to pass. The reason for signing this bill into law isn’t a strong enough reason to require such a restriction on voter rights. It’s true that Texans should feel confident that the election is secure and without fraud, but one could argue that that is a problem that Republicans created for themselves, as they have made massive claims of rampant voter fraud that just isn’t backed up by the stats. Texans should have the right of access to vote and taking these convenient voting methods away will only lower and restrict the amount of voters that will be able to cast their ballot. This law is completely one-sided, with all the benefits going to Republicans, which unsurprisingly make up the majority of the Texas government. Nobody, regardless of position, should be able to sign laws that allow their political party to benefit and have an unfair advantage in an upcoming election.
References:
https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/confidence-americans-will-trust-result-election-october-2020
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/01/texas-voting-bill-greg-abbott/
Jacob Dylan Bennett 