Texas Senate Passes Election Integrity Measure to Make It ‘Easy to Vote and Hard to Cheat’

The Texas State Senate passed Senate Bill 7 early Thursday morning, an election integrity measure, which Republican State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R) describes as a bill aimed to make it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

In a video posted to social media in the early hours of Thursday morning, Sen. Hughes, who authored the legislation, announced the body passed Senate Bill 7, which he described as an omnibus election integrity bill.

“This bill is about making it easy to vote and hard to cheat. We had a long debate. Scores of amendments were offered, and at the end of the day, the Texas Senate passed a strong election integrity bill that we can be proud of,” he said.

“It heads over to the House now for more work, and election integrity bills continue to move through the process,” he added:

After several hours of debate, Senate Bill 7 (Election Integrity) and Senate Bill 12 (Social Media Censorship) fully passed the Texas Senate early this morning. #txlege #SB12 #SB7 @Scott_SanfordTX @BriscoeCain pic.twitter.com/HdQPc2FBy7

— Senator Bryan Hughes (@SenBryanHughes) April 1, 2021

According to NBC News, the original version “banned overnight early voting hours and drive-thru early voting, while restricting how election officials handle mail voting,” not allowing them to “proactively send applications to vote by mail to voters, even if they qualify,” per The Texas Tribune.

“Overall, this bill is designed to address areas throughout the process where bad actors can take advantage, so Texans can feel confident that their elections are fair, honest and open,” Hughes said, adding that it aims to ensure “every Texan has a fair and equal opportunity to vote, regardless of where they live in the state.”

However, many Democrats continue to reject such proposals, contending election integrity measures are akin to voter suppression.

“As I see this bill, it’s a pure case of suppression,” Texas State Sen. Borris Miles (D) said. “There are some things in here that are really offensive. This hurts to the core.”

Democrats across the country have used similar language to describe GOP election integrity efforts in other states, such as Georgia. Members of the far-left have continued to falsely characterize the Peach State’s election integrity law as suppressive, particularly to minority communities, even though it expands early voting opportunities across the state.

“The laws, their various cousins in Republican state legislatures across the country, are one of the greatest threats we have to modern democracy in America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated during last week’s Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on S. 1, or the “For the People Act,” which would largely strip states of their power to implement basic election integrity measures.