It would seem odd that the author of Texas's new bill of even more voting restrictions in the most restrictive state in the nation would have 'no idea' about this history of Texas' voter suppression laws, in this case using language lifted straight from Jim Crow era laws specifically written so that Blacks could not vote.
Source: Houston Chronicle
On Thursday night, and into the wee hours of Friday morning, the Texas House fiercely debated a series of voting restrictions championed by the state’s Republican leaders.
Democrats have taken issue with nearly every facet of the bill, which supporters say would prevent ballot fraud and which critics contend would introduce new hardships to voting and disproportionately effect Texans of color.
But when state Rep. Rafael Anchía, a Dallas Democrat, stood to ask questions of the bill’s author, Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, he zeroed in on the bill’s purpose — stated, in part, to “preserve the purity of the ballot box.”
It’s language plucked straight from the Texas Constitution (Article 6, Section 4). It’s also a phrase that has been used in Texas to justify “white primaries” and other methods to disenfranchise Black, Latino and Asian American Texans.
MSNBC's power duo weighed in last night.
The no-pants-at-school-assembly anxiety dream comes to life for this Republican Texas legislator: https://t.co/DVr2y2Pk1x
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) May 7, 2021
According to many Republicans, the history you learned in the @maddow A-block about all-white primaries, or the history many of y’all learned in episode 1 of Watchmen, should be illegal for teachers to teach in schools. All your kids should learn are historyesque bedtime stories.
— Joy-Ann 😷Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 8, 2021
And here's Rachel Maddow's segment last night, part of a much larger piece on Texas' new voter suppression bill, which passed.
