Texas Republicans are scrambling to combat voter fraud that doesn't exist: op-ed

Texas Democrats staged a dramatic walkout Sunday night in the state House, forcing Republicans to abruptly adjourn without taking a vote on the voting measure critics say is too restrictive.

The bill was the latest in a series of restrictive voting measures put forward in a number of states since the 2020 election after former President Donald Trump and his most loyal allies disseminated conspiracy theories of mass voter fraud. But according to The Washington Post's Phillip Bump, the drama obscures the central point: There's no evidence that mass voter fraud took place.

"...meaning that the purported rationale for the legislation itself doesn't exist."

"From 2015 to 2020, a period during which more than 44.1 million votes were cast for presidential and gubernatorial races and for constitutional measures alone, there were only 197 complaints of election fraud filed with the state," Bump writes. "Only 23 were from the 2020 election itself. The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) devoted more than 22,000 hours to tracking down fraud cases last year, closing out 16 minor cases around Houston."

Bump noted that Texas has a history of trying to implement voting restrictions that court have determined to disproportionally affect minority voters. "It's also not a coincidence that the states that have been quickest to implement new restrictions are ones in which the legislature is controlled by Republicans but in which Democrats are posing an increasing statewide electoral threat," Bump writes.

Read the full op-ed over at The Washington Post.