HB6 is the most restrictive voting bill in Texas since the Civil Rights Era.
There are many terrible things that the HB6 Jim Crow bill does. One of those things is it allows vigilante “patriot” groups to go to minority neighborhoods under the guise of a poll watcher and diminish the minority vote. Don’t you think that will happen?
The video to your left is from Fort Worth in 2020. You can see the entire video here. The building across the street from the man recording was a voting center in a Black neighborhood.
Early in the morning, while elderly local Black residents were going in to cast their votes. Many Trump-supporting white dudes thought it was a good idea to drive back and forth in front of the center; some even parked. They were all driving big-ass pickup trucks that had giant Trump and Confederate flags flowing in the back.
Some of the elderly were terrified to go in or even get out of their car.
So the community came out. That’s the gathered crowd you see. They were blocking traffic at both ends of the streets and having the Trumpers turn around. Eventually, the cops showed up. When the cops got there, they did the same, not letting any of those yahoos through.
This happened the same day that Kamala Harris came to Fort Worth as part of the campaign tour. It was the same day when the New Braunfels Trump Train tried to run the Biden/Harris off the highway.
Unfortunately, this incident last year in Fort Worth was far from unique.
There were reports of Trumpers standing outside of the 100-foot mark in Dallas, shouting and threatening voters who were walking inside.
The Trump Train in Anna even bragged about it on Facebook.
Incidents happened all over Texas and all over America.
HB6 would prevent the removal of poll watchers unless they were participating in voter fraud. Voter intimidation? Completely allowed.
HB6 would allow a poll watcher to harass and intimidate voters inside of a polling place, without the threat of removal from an election judge or even police.
Knowing the things that YOU know about Texas and Trump supporters, especially the things we all witnessed from these people last year, what do you think Trumpers will do as a poll watcher if there is no one to support them?
The Jim Crow era style of voter intimidation would be back, erasing much of our society’s progress over the last 50 years.
This is a racist attempt by Republicans to stop Black and brown people in Texas from voting. The GOP is very aware of the right-wing violence we saw, and they participated throughout 2020 and leading up to January 6th. They know the repercussions this bill will have, and they’re pushing it, anyway.
HB6 also prevents the distribution of mail-in ballot applications. It prohibits government employees to even talk about vote-by-mail. If a government employee told a voter that voting by mail existed or told them how to apply for a mail-in ballot, that government employee would be sentenced to a state jail felony.
HB6 would prohibit counties from posting mail-in ballot applications on their county websites, as this bill makes it illegal to distribute mail-in ballots in any form.
HB6 discourages disabled people from getting voter-assistance.
In this bill, if a disabled person needs voter assistance, they will have to fill out a form and disclose why assistance is necessary. In most cases, the reason a person needs voter assistance is a sensitive and private medical condition. The bill makes it a law to disclose your medical disabilities to the government to vote for assistance. This provision in HB6 discourages people from voting at all, as they would have to disclose their private and confidential medical information to vote.
This Jim Crow voter suppression bill, will ensure that the corrupt Republicans who have been in power for the last two decades stay in power.
In 2020, Texas was the hardest state to vote in. Our voter turnout is the worst of any state in America. We don’t have online voter registration. Only a small group of Texans are eligible to vote by mail. 750 polling places in Texas closed between 2013 and 2019, predominately in communities of color. HB6 will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of people. That’s the Republican’s intention.
205,000 Hispanic, 49,000 Black, and 19,000 Asians are turning 18 in Texas this year alone. They will vote, and they will help push Texas blue.
Vote. Vote in every single election, mid-terms, municipal, and constitutional amendments. Everything the Texas GOP is trying to do, not only with this bill but with so many others, is meant to disenfranchise and oppress. Things will get worse if we don’t vote every single member of the Jim Crow Caucus out.
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