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Turns out that the state legislature in Texas
is poised

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to pass new legislation that would, I mean, it
looks

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like target the most democratic and largest

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county in the state, because they don't like
the way

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people there vote.

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Okay.

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So what are they doing?

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Well, they want to concentrate more power for
the Secretary

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of State to overturn the results of the
elections if

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there's a paper ballot issue, which doesn't
sound too crazy,

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right?

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But paper ballots seem important, but let me
get to

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the details here.

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And more importantly, which counties would be
impacted

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by this and which counties wouldn't be
impacted by this.

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So the Republican state lawmakers in the Lone
Star State

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are advancing a bill this week that would
allow the

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Secretary of State, who is handpicked by the
governor, and

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we all know who the governor of Texas is, Greg

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Abbott, to overturn the results of an
election.

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According to Newsweek's reporting on this, uh,
according to the

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text of the bill, SB 1993, the Secretary of
State,

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a position appointed by Republican Governor
Greg Abbott and currently

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held by Jane Nelson would have the authority
to throw

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out election results in counties wherein 2% or
more of

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the polling locations ran out of ballot paper

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for more than an hour.

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So that more than an hour part of it is

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fascinating because that didn't happen during
the midterm elections and

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the election officials managed to get the
paper for the

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ballots within a few hours, one

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particular county in Texas that's been voting
Democratic since 2008

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would have the election results thrown out.

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Okay.

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They could do a like a re-election, like they
could

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vote again, but think about what that means.

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That means that people need to spend time and
resources

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to go back to the voting place and cast
another

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ballot.

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Wait, I'm not sure that Abbott and the
Republicans have

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yet realized that maybe less people would vote
the second

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time because he's already had the election.

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Maybe they hadn't considered that.

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Oh, we should call them.

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Like I think people should write letters,
because that's a

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consequence they haven't considered.

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This proposal, by the way, really reminds me
of what

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Texas did in the very beginning of rolling
back reproductive

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rights in the state.

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So they passed laws indicating that an
abortion clinic would

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need to shut down if their hallways weren't a
certain

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width.

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And it's nonsense.

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It means nothing, right?

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It has no impact on the safety of the
procedure.

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It has, you know, no life-threatening
consequences whatsoever.

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They just wanted to make it incredibly
difficult to have

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an abortion clinic in the state.

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Well, and also both of these instances of like
the

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government looking for like specific facts
they can exploit to

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shut something down that they don't like, down
to the

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level of measuring like the space between the
top of

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the door and the ceiling is exactly the sort
of

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like bureaucratic nonsense that conservatives
have always said that they

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hate, but in this case, they like the outcome,
so

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they're fine with it.

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No, a hundred percent.

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And so like let's get to the county that this

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would impact, because that's the other thing.

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They're so obvious about what they're doing
here.

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So um it targets Harris County in particular.

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While the text of the legislation does not
explicitly mention

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Harris County, the authority it would vest in
the Secretary

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of State applies only to counties with
populations higher than

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2.7 million.

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Harris is the largest county in Texas with
nearly 4.7

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million residents.

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And the only one to meet this requirement,
with the

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second largest, Dallas County, boasting only
2.6 million residents.

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Ah, didn't quite get there.

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So this is like when for decades there was
extra

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strict scrutiny on election laws that certain
southern states were

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coming up with.

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This is a great demonstration of why that was
necessary.

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And not just because this is uh obviously
specifically targeted

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at Democrats or that it's transparent in the
way that

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it's trying to apply to certain counties and
not others,

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but it's also in this case very intentionally
targeting a

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county that has a lot of people of color
living

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in it.

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So it's the exact same thing that the voting
rights

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act was intended to stop.

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And that's why it was such an amazing thing
for

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the Republicans when they decided that that
was gonna be

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gone, they weren't gonna be doing that
anymore.

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Now, Republicans in the state are arguing that
listen, this

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is just a response to something disastrous
that happened during

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the midterm elections.

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And we just want to write that wrong.

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Okay, we're just we want to protect democracy.

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That's how they're trying to sell it to
people, right?

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So it's uh response to uh what happened in
Harris

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County in 2022, where some Republicans tried
to use election

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day problems in the county to justify
overturning the results

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of the midterm elections there.

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So in Harris County during the 2022 midterm
elections, 26

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out of the county's 782 polling locations.

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So a narrow majority.

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Exactly, uh, were affected, according to the
Houston Chronicle.

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Despite the relatively small number of
locations affected, the issue

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was seized upon by Texas Republicans, some of
whom claimed

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that the shortages cost them their races,
ultimately leading to

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the push for legislation that resulted in SB
1993.

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Harris County has also, as I mentioned
earlier, tipped Democratic

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in every presidential election since 2008.

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They are tar think about how much they are
actively

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spitting in your mouth with this argument.

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They are actively targeting this county, you
know it, because

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it's Democratic.

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And the Republicans are pretending that there
is something unique

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about these 26 counties that meant that they
were disproportionately

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conservative, and that's why their vote
briefly being uh hampered

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resulted in them losing their their election,
even though it's

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what is it, a couple percentage points of the
total

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number of polling places?

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This this is as insulting a political argument
as I

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can come up with.

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It's embarrassing.

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I'm gonna try to come up with more, but for

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now, this is more.

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Like, have some dignity, right?

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Like how embarrassing is it that like you lose
in

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this county, and rather than maybe doing a
little self-reflection,

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why is it the fine people of Harris County,
for

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some reason are not favoring the Republican
candidates?

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I mean, you could, you know, do that self-
reflection, make

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some changes, propose things that are
appealing to the voters,

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to the constituents there.

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But you could also cheat.

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It's difficult.

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And it seems like they're going in the
cheating direction.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Now, I have heard in the wake of this coming

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out, some really simple minded supposed
solutions.

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Some people are saying that rather than giving
this huge

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amount of new power to the Secretary of State
and

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canceling elections and holding another one,
why not just have

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more paper available?

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I don't know exactly why.

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I'm assuming that there are rare earth
elements that are

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needed for that paper, and as we all know,
China

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has really gobbled up a lot of the min.es in

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Africa where that stuff is produced

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No, but but but really think about how stupid
this

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is so they can't just make more paper
available which

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would solve the problem of paper not being
available.

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So instead they're going to throw away all of
the

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results of the election and hold another
election where they're

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gonna need paper not only for those 26
locations but

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for the other 250.

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So it would be like 20 times more efficient
just

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in terms of paper, let alone everything else
to just

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bring in some boxes of paper.

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A few more reams and we can avoid so much

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trouble.

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Yeah.

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Just make sure you got those reams folks bring
the

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reams in.

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Right?

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You're looking ream too much.

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I think the issue is that in some of these

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parties they're gonna be readings they'll get
reamed by the

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Republican Party in the state of Texas.

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So let's just call it what it is.

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