Late on Sunday night, Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives walked out of the chamber to block a GOP voter suppression bill.
On Monday, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Chris Turner was interviewed by Jack Fink of KTVT-TV about why Democrats took the action.
"And so, in the Democrats' opinion, what were the most egregious provisions in the bill," Fink asked. "Because this was a conference committee bill, different from what the Senate and House initially passed."
"Well that's right, Jack, and how much time do you have? Because there's a lot of offensive provisions in the bill, but let me give you the top two or three," Turner replied.
"One, enhanced powers for partisan poll watchers," he explained. "Who, under this bill, would basically have free rein to roam through polling places and harass, intimidate voters and election officials. And this is a well-worn tactic by Republican campaigns to do this in predominantly minority precincts."
"One of the most offensive provisions, I think, was the provision to say that early voting on a Sunday cannot begin before 1 pm," he explained. "And the reason that's important is that many churches — particularly in the African American community — there's a great tradition called 'Souls to the Polls.' People come to church, worship, after the church service is over people go to the polls as a congregation to cast their vote. Starting at 1 pm really cuts off the ability to do that when church is getting out at nine in the morning or ten in the morning or eleven in the morning."
"And further, it queues up a line at the polling when it does finally open at 1 pm," he said.
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