AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats walked off the house floor Sunday night to prevent a quorum and kill Senate Bill 7. At a press conference afterwards, several said they didn't have a spot at the table on the voting bill, so they used the last option they had.
"They were prepared to cut us off and try to silence us," Rep. Chris Turner said. "We were not going to let them do that and that's why Democrats used the last tool available to us."
Gov. Greg Abbott later responded saying:
"It is deeply disappointing and concerning for Texan's that neither will reach my desk. Ensuring the integrity of our elections and reforming a broken bail system remain emergencies in Texas. They will be added to the special session agenda."
Once the special session starts, however, will Republicans and Democrats be able to find common ground? 6 News spoke with two voting advocacy organizations, Honest Elections Project and Security Democracy, about their positions for and against the bill and where a compromise could be made.
A matter of hours
The Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021 would standardize early voting hours in Texas elections to be at least nine hours on weekdays for local elections. For primary and general elections early voting would be open for at least 12 hours. Early voting could not be conducted earlier than 6 a.m. or later than 9 p.m. On Sunday, early voting would be limited to between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Secure Democracy Executive Director Sarah Walker told 6 News the Sunday hours seemed like a deliberate blow against African American communities that hold Sunday election events in the morning.
"The report restricts voting on the last day of voting and right now that is the only Sunday on which early voting is typically offered," Walker said. "This provision I would argue specifically threatens Souls to the Polls in which African American voters go vote early immediately after Sunday worship."
Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told 6 News he is in favor of many provisions of SB 7 and supports standardizing voting times across the state to provide a consistent voting experience. When it came to the Sunday voting issue, however, Snead said that's a potential compromise.
"That could certainly be something that could be negotiated. That's a political question," Snead said. "Expanding early voting and voting consistency is very popular and makes a lot of sense."
Empowered poll watchers
SB 7 includes language supporting poll watchers and would even penalize election officials for removing them. The bill states:
"An election officer commits an offense if the officer intentionally or knowingly refuses to accept a watcher for service when acceptance of the watcher is required by this section. An offense under this subsection is a Class B misdemeanor."
The bill requires poll watchers to take an oath not to disrupt the election process, but it also gives poll watchers the ability to be near any voter who is being assisted with the voting process. Walker is concerned it goes too far.
"One of the provisions would allow, if you were doing curb side voting, a poll watcher to sit in the car with you. That is beyond government overreach," Walker said.
That might seem like a strange claim, but bill author Texas District 1 Senator Bryan Hughes said during a debate that "if someone is entitled to assist the voter because that voter can't read or can't see the ballot, then that person should be inside the car when they cast their ballot."
If the poll watcher would be allowed to watch the person assisting the voter in the car, it would require them to be close by and some people are concerned exactly how far that will go.
Snead told 6 News he wasn't familiar with that exact language but that it helps all candidates in the process if poll watchers have good visibility on everything going on.
"Lets assume there was a claim of fraud," Snead said. "It's a lot harder for a candidate to make that claim if their own party's polling observers were in there and signed off on the process as legitimate in real time."
Additional language on how far watchers can be from an actual voting booth or voting device could help both parties sort this out.
RELATED: Texas lawmakers will discuss election, bail reform bills in a special session, Gov. Abbott says
Curing ballots
Voters sometimes make honest mistakes and the process of fixing those mistakes was referred to in the legislature as a "ballot curing process." Unfortunately, the last version of SB 7 didn't have a ballot curing process and left voters unable to fix simple mistakes. Both Walker and Snead told 6 News they support that provision if it were added to the bill.
"If you make a simple mistake on your ballot, your have an opportunity to correct it. This is a basic constitutional right to have your vote counted and there was bipartisan support for this," Walker said.
Snead echoed the sentiment.
"We support providing a reasonable ballot cure process. We included that in the report we released earlier this year of election reform recommendations," Snead said.