Major Voting Restrictions All But Certain in Texas

Texas Republicans dug in Saturday for a final weekend vote on some of the most restrictive new voting laws in the US, putting the last touches on a sweeping bill that would eliminate drive-thru voting, empower partisan poll watchers and limit voting on Sundays, when many Black churchgoers head to the polls, per the AP. The changes would need to be approved before midnight on Sunday, when the GOP-controlled Legislature wraps up a session dominated by Republicans muscling through staunchly conservative measures pertaining to guns, abortion and how race can be taught in public schools. But none have drawn backlash like Senate Bill 7, which Republicans packed with a raft of new voting restrictions that would alter how the country's biggest red state conducts elections.

Democrats have virtually no path to stop it from passing, thereby putting Republicans on the brink of a major victory in their nationwide campaign to impose new voting restrictions driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign the measure, which Democrats have said they would challenge in court. President Joe Biden released a statement calling the Texas bill's final form "wrong and un-American.” (Read the full story from the AP)