Texas Republicans unveil sweeping voting restrictions bill

Texas Republican state legislators on Saturday unveiled a sweeping voting restrictions bill amid efforts by Republican-led states to overhaul election laws in the wake of former President Trump's electoral loss.

The bill, S.B. 7, includes several controversial provisions that critics say would disproportionately affect poor and minority voters. It also specifically targets voting practices employed this past year in Harris County, which includes Houston, by banning drive-through voting and 24-hour voting. Those practices were used by 140,000 voters in 2020. S.B. 7 makes it a state jail felony for local officials to attempt to send mail-in ballot applications to voters who did not request them, a practice Harris County employed in 2020. The bill also limits early voting and implements more restrictions on absentee voting, including adding more identification requirements for those who wish to vote-by-mail.