Colin Allred

Well, it`s just not happening, Jonathan. This is something that -- that we`ve been talking about for some time. That we all know that this is just a mask to try and restrict the right to vote using the threat of voter fraud or the idea…

Donald Trump was just in Dallas a couple of days ago saying the election was stolen from him and pushing the big lie again here in Texas.

I think he feels very strongly about voting rights. He’s a former secretary of state. He recognizes some of the things that are happening in the states around the country to try and subvert elections.

Well, you’re right. I’m on the foreign affairs committee, and I have been doing some traveling now coming out of COVID. And all around the world our allies and our strategic partners are wondering if our democracy is going to hold. And…

Yes, well, you know, we`re not being asked to count bubbles on a bar of soap or jelly beans in a jar but we have seen this before. We`ve seen the use of these election boards to try and make it extremely difficult for certain folks to vote.

I trust the president of the United States. I trust our speaker to deliver this.

I think we are still on track to do that. The big goal is still within reach.

I`ve told my caucus not only is this policy and these incredibly important policies on the table, but really American democracy is on the table.

I wish senators would stop talking about the House and maybe we could stop talking about the Senate. We have our own business to do here, and I think it`s critical we do.

I think we should focus more as everyone has said and as you have said on the policies that are transformative.

We have to allow the people to vote and let it come out as it will.

It is not based on trying to vet any kind of fraud. There was no fraud in Texas in the last election.

President Biden said it well when he said that those marines died for defending our vision and our values.

What our bill is trying to do is to expand the protections to election administrators that exist for voters from intimidation and threatening, to strengthen protections for federal election records.

We can’t allow that to happen in this country.

I think it`s certainly time for the president to make pushing to pass H.R.1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, to make those as high priority as anything else on his agenda.

We just have to have a partner in the Senate.

As she said, it`s still a very bad bill. And one of the provisions you didn`t have in there in your excellent summary was allowing poll watchers to have free movement in the polling place.

This special session is motivated by that big lie. It`s still with us. We have to beat this. We have to beat it with federal legislation.

We need to have federal voting protections as we`ve talked about to try and make sure that these things don`t ever go into place.

Anytime we’re talking about making it easier to overthrow elections, we’re talking about really going to the heart of democracy.

You can save our democracy by being the one who makes this happen.

That’s what I think this can be about.

But this idea we might have partisan legislature overturning will of the people and deciding who really won the election just based on who they wanted to win it is so dangerous.

HR-4 is a great bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And I want to stress that because when we`re talking about the For the People Act and HR-1 that we`ve already passed in House, and that looks like its passage is going to be difficult…