JUDY WOODRUFF: The current fight over voting access happening on Capitol Hill and in state
legislatures will determine how Americans chose our leaders for decades to come.
Yamiche Alcindor has this report on Texas, where Republican lawmakers are currently working
to pass a new restrictive elections bill.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Texas, the latest battleground in a nationwide GOP effort to pass new laws
restricting voting access. The push comes as many in the party continue to falsely claim
that the 2020 election was rigged.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): The integrity of elections in 2020 were questioned right here
in Harris County.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Republicans who control the
state legislature say changes are needed to ensure election security.
They're gearing up to pass new legislation that, if signed into law, will lead to sweeping
changes for how Texans can vote. It especially affects diverse, urban counties that expanded
voting options amid the pandemic.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT: We must pass laws to prevent election officials from jeopardizing the election
process.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Democrats and some Texas-based businesses, including American Airlines and
Dell Technologies, are opposing the bills.
WOMAN: Fight until the fight is no longer needed.
(APPLAUSE)
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Meanwhile, young activists in Texas are trying to push back.
One of them is 25-year-old Ofelia Alonso from the organization Texas Rising. She drove six
hours from her home in Brownsville, near the Mexico border, to Austin to speak out.
OFELIA ALONSO, Texas Rising: It's like telling them, like, your voter participation was so
good that you're getting punished for it.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The GOP legislation follows record high early vote turnout last year in
large metro areas like Houston. That was after election officials added measures to make
voting easier, including 24-hour and drive-through voting.
Legislation passed by the state Senate would outlaw those expanded voting options; 28-year-old
Tiara Cooper, an organizer with the nonpartisan group Faith in Texas, helps register voters
in her community of South Dallas. It's an area where predominantly Black neighborhoods
already lack resources for voting infrastructure and education.
TIARA COOPER, Faith in Texas: South Dallas cannot withstand another barrier.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: As a formerly incarcerated Black woman, Cooper is concerned about the
bills' enhanced criminal penalties for voting offenses.
TIARA COOPER: It's already hard, as a person of these communities, to be an active voter.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The legislation would make it a felony for election officials or organizers
to send out unsolicited applications to vote by mail. At the same time, under the GOP bills,
partisan poll watchers would get more access to polling places.
The practice became a flash point in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. After former President
Trump falsely claimed that the election was stolen from him, a number of poll watchers
who were Trump supporters stormed elections facilities.
PROTESTERS: Stop the count!
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Republicans say the legislation is in part about creating fairness in the
voting system. They argue higher populated counties that tend to vote for Democrats shouldn't
get more time to vote than rural counties that trend Republican. Alonso rejects that
argument.
OFELIA ALONSO: If the Republican intent for voter integrity and cohesion were true, they
would create a system that was more accessible overall.
MAN: I move passage for Senate Bill 7.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Republican State Senator Bryan Hughes co-authored one of the Texas
bills known as Senate Bill 7.
What do you say to some who think that this bill is based on a lie? And do you yourself
think that 2020, the election, was fraudulent?
STATE SEN. BRYAN HUGHES (R-TX): Texas elections in 2020 went much better than other states.
You can look at the results here. We didn't have near the problems that a number of states
had.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: So, do you believe the 2020 election was fair, that it was -- that President
Biden was legitimately elected?
STATE SEN. BRYAN HUGHES: President Biden is the president. He did not win in Texas. President
Trump won in Texas. And a lot of people say we're unhappy about the 2020 election in Texas.
Republicans did great in Texas in the 2020 election.
We held the Texas House, held the Texas Senate, held every seat in Congress. And so, if we
were concerned about that, this wouldn't even be an issue. This is about making the system
better. We do this every time the legislature meets.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The bills also limit the number and location of polling places in only
a handful of counties in Texas with populations of at least one million people.
What do you say to the criticism that, regardless of the intent of this law, that it will make
it harder for some people, including people of color, Black people, disabled people, to
vote?
STATE SEN. BRYAN HUGHES: Well, so, I hear that generalization, but no one has shown
me any evidence of it. This bill says that, in those urban counties, that the polling
places have to be distributed evenly across the county.
Now, that's just straight-up fairness based on where the voters live, regardless of their
race, of their party, of their ethnic background, their religion.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: What I'm worried about is how un-American
this whole initiative is. It's sick.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Democrats, including President Biden, have spoken out against the Republican
voting bills in Texas and across the country.
Courtland Cox, a veteran civil rights activist, helped lead the fight for voting rights during
the 1960s, especially across the South. Back then, he was an organizer with the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Cox says one of the most concerning trends among the
GOP's current effort is an attempt to disqualify votes after they're cast.
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: It's about ballots that poured in,
and nobody but a few knew where they came from.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Like Trump's push to throw out tens of thousands of valid mail ballots
in the 2020 election. Cox calls it voter nullification.
COURTLAND COX, Former Member, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: It's very clear, if
we get around the voter suppression, at the end of the day, they're going to try to say
that is not legal, this cannot stand, and we will do whatever it is to make sure that,
if you win, we will nullify your votes.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: If the Texas legislation passes, organizers like Ofelia Alonso say
they will have to pivot from protesting to helping voters navigate the changes to make
sure their votes aren't thrown out.
OFELIA ALONSO: I think it's going to take a huge push, collective push, from a lot of
our partners, from a lot of folks here in Cameron County to really break down what these
bills mean, what they're going To do, how that affects our work as voter registrars.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Texas Republicans still need to merge their House and Senate bills
in the coming days. The final bill will then go to the governor, who is expected to sign
it.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Yamiche Alcindor.