Texas is ground zero for voter suppression. Texas Republicans enacted the most stringent voter ID law in the country. They slashed communities across our State through partisan gerrymandering. And now, this year, in what a Federal court has just described as a ``ham-handed move'' which ``exemplifies the power of government to strike fear and anxiety and to intimidate the least powerful among us,'' the Abbott administration has initiated a massive voter purge by making the false claim that tens of thousands of people have voted illegally in our State. Our State has a problem. It is not too many people voting illegally; it is too few people voting at all. The difference that you see in this debate is that we believe elections should be won for one party or the other based on turning out the voters, and too often, our Republican colleagues believe they are won by throwing out the voters. I believe that the important reform that we are considering today will replace these purges with the urge to have voters participate by removing the many obstacles that stand in their way. It makes the right to vote more than a paper guarantee. It makes it a reality by allowing people to know their own power, to shape our democracy, and hold every public official accountable. ``For the People'' means stopping the steady Trump erosion of our democracy by empowering the people to make their voices heard.…
On the recordMarch 6, 2019
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