Compromise could make Texas elections better, but Legislature just can’t pull that off

For a few brief moments as the Texas House debated changes to election law Thursday, there were glimpses of what might have been.

Democrats offered amendments that the Republican majority consistently shot down. They included proposals to create online voter registration (which Texas badly needs), approve drive-through voting and allow students to use college ID cards at the polls.

Not all were good ideas, and some were merely attempts to score political points. But they pointed the way to what could have been a compromise to improve much of our voting system, to better balance access and security.

After months of warring on this issue, allegations of racism and underhanded dealing, and Democrats’ 40 days in Washington, that wasn’t possible. It’s a shame because there are plenty of ways to improve Texas elections, and few of them are in the final deal the House and Senate reached on the bill Monday.

Extremism on both sides prevent it. Republicans are wedded to the false notions that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election and that such fraud is frequent. Democrats painted every significant change as a return to the Jim Crow era.

The bill that the House approved Friday is better than previous attempts. Republican leaders made adjustments based on concerns raised by advocates for disabled Texans. An important one will give voters a chance to amend problems with requests for mail-in ballots.

The bill calls for voters to include on their applications the identification number they used to register to vote. But many voters may not remember whether they registered with a Social Security number or driver’s license. It’s important they be allowed to fix a simple mistake and receive a ballot.

Republicans also addressed the question of Sunday early voting hours. During the Legislature’s regular session, the measure would have prevented polls from opening before 1 p.m., which would hurt Black churches’ efforts to help voters cast ballots known as “souls to the polls.”

But the measure contains maddening nods to the increasingly ridiculous conspiracy theories of people who cannot accept that Donald Trump lost the presidency. One amendment would have Texas auditing four counties’ elections every cycle. In Texas and elsewhere, advocates have insisted that if we just examine the ballots and machines long enough, the sweeping plot against Trump will be revealed.

Some have targeted Tarrant County, essentially arguing that there must be fraud because Joe Biden won the county, the first Democrat to do so in decades. It couldn’t possibly be that Trump lost support among suburban voters, especially as the coronavirus pandemic raged, or that Fort Worth is growing and trending bluer each election.

There’s valid concern, too, about how efforts to protect partisan “poll watchers” will play out. Election judges could face criminal prosecution if they interfere with observers, but they are responsible for protecting voters’ privacy and preventing intimidation. Black and Hispanic lawmakers are concerned about the effect that a show of force by right-wing groups could have.

It’s hard enough to recruit election workers for long hours and low pay, and putting them up for possible jail time as they try to protect everyone’s rights won’t help.

There’s nothing wrong with having observers to ensure that voting rules are followed and that there’s transparency in the process. But in-person voting fraud is exceedingly rare.

The lost opportunity to improve both access and security is disappointing. Voting-rights advocates frequently rank Texas as one of the hardest states to vote in, and that’s largely because of the difficulty registering. It’s ridiculous that you can complete just about every other interaction with the government online, but not register to vote.

And requiring registration a full month before Election Day prevents people who tune in late to campaigns from exercising their rights. In a rational environment, trading improvements to that system for some of the restrictions Republicans want on mail-in ballots would make sense.

The bill heads back to the Senate, and if it rejects House changes, a conference committee will be needed to iron out details. In the regular session, such a committee produced major changes that neither chamber had a chance to consider. Lawmakers should avoid such sleight of hand this time.

The election bill is largely unnecessary. It’s particularly sad that so much rancor has been unleashed over elections that are generally clean and well-executed. The worst predictions of its effect, the idea that it will disenfranchise voters, is overstated.

It’s too bad the Legislature is beyond compromise on this important topic. The best thing that can happen now is that the measure gets no worse as the special session concludes and Texas moves on.

This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 12:53 PM.