Two Democrats return to Texas, but lawmakers remain short of quorum needed to ensure 'integrity of our elections'

Two Democrats who left Texas during a special month-long legislative session have returned to the state, while more than 50 remain in Washington, D.C., leaving the House below the quorum needed to pass what supporters describe as an "election integrity bill."

Efforts to pass similar legislation during the regular session failed after Democrats previously left, but Republicans introduced a replacement, Senate Bill 1, which passed the Senate. House Bill 3 is a companion bill.

Legislators will need to remain out of state until Aug. 7, the special session end date, but Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to keep calling special sessions until a quorum is reached, and the legislation passed.

Sen. Bob Hall (R-Canton), who introduced the original legislation that failed to pass during the regular session, argued that "ensuring the integrity of our elections is not voter suppression."

"As long as humans are involved in the election process there will always be some degree of human error or worse, attempts at cheating," Hall told the Houston Daily. "The goal of the state must be to minimize the risks of either happening and reassuring the public that their vote has meaning and counts. SB 1 will work toward shrinking the potential room for error and cheating."

"As Chairman (Bryan) Hughes referenced in the State Affairs hearing over SB 1, much concern was expressed years ago during the debate over requiring photo-ID to vote, and since then voter participation has not been negatively impacted as people feared," Hall said.  

According to a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll of 1,115 national adults, 79% of respondents believe voters should be required to show government-issued photo identification whenever they vote.

"The truth is, as is with any controversial legislation, that people purposefully misrepresent the contents of the bill, its intentions, and paint it as an attack on certain communities in an attempt to stoke the fear and passion of their base," Hall said.

According to a poll from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, 54% of Texans oppose legislators staging walkouts. Referring to the Democrat walkouts, TPPF spokesman Brian Phillips stated that “Most Texans see it as a childish and desperate move, and they don’t like temper tantrums.”

Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) returned to Texas Wednesday, stating on his Twitter account that he wanted to "engage in good-faith dialogue about the aspects of the bill that I, and others, think are harmful." 

Other Democrats, however, questioned whether he had a mandate from the party to begin discussions.

His return follows Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston), who returned to the state Tuesday, citing family reasons, according to the Austin-American Statesman.

According to the Austin American Statesman, out of the 67 total Democrats in the Texas House, 63 were absent and only two absences were excused, meaning that 61 House Democrats left the state. The Texas House voted on July 13 to compel the Democrats who left the state to return and attend the legislative session, using warrants and arrests if necessary. The House voted 76-4 to authorize officials to arrest any non-excused absent member after the absence of a quorum was established.

According to KXAN News, Gov. Greg Abbott recently vetoed a section of the Texas budget that granted funding to the State Legislature, as well as the staffs and legislative agencies stemming from the legislature. Abbott undertook this action after Democrats broke quorum a first time to prevent the passage of TX SB7. The Texas Legislature did not pass a new legislative budget before the House Democrats left.

Back on May 31, Texas House Democrats left the Texas capitol for the first time, breaking quorum and preventing election integrity bill SB 7 from being passed. By rejecting the legislative process and exiting early, Texas Democrats left the House with fewer than the required number of legislators to take the vote which would approve SB 7.