Voting rights organizations gather together against SB 7
AUSTIN, Texas - The 87th Legislative Session has come to a close, but Senate Bill 7 is still causing issues.
It was killed after Democrats walked out on the session, but the bill is expected to be revived in a special session.
"Democracy has been under attack across the country; however, Texas was ready. Texans were ready for the fight. They were ready to defend to the very end," said Hillary Holley, director of organizing for Netroots Nation.
Voting rights organizations including MOVE Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Common Cause Texas, ACLU Texas, and Texas Freedom Network gathered together against SB 7.
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"What does voter suppression look like in SB 7? We have to think that voter suppression is really in two categories. One is raising administrative barriers to voters so that they become sort of exhausted to vote and then the other is intimidating voters. SB 7 had both of those things," said Sarah Labowitz, Policy & Advocacy Director for ACLU of Texas.
Although SB 7 was ultimately shelved after members of the Texas Democratic party walked out of session before the deadline, it's not completely off the table. Gov. Greg Abbott says he will call a special session just to put it back on the agenda.
"SB 7 was a really dangerous piece of legislation. It would have ended our electoral process in a state that is already the hardest to vote in the country. It was built on a big lie not on any actual problems," said Mimi Marziani, President for Texas Civil Rights Project.
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Senate Bill 7 was designed to tackle a long list of voting-related issues including prohibiting ballot drop boxes and drive-thru voting. It also limits early voting hours.
Governor threatens to defund legislative branch as special session looms
The session may be over but Governor Abbott says it's not really done as he promises to call lawmakers back. He's also threatening to defund the legislative branch over the walkout by House Democrats that blocked the controversial voting bill. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has all the details.
"What we see happening is not right. We know racist, voter suppression is bad for Texans. It is bad for our economy, and it is bad for our democracy," said Charlie Bonner with Move Texas.
Bonner says a special session for SB 7 should be the last thing on the governor’s mind. "A minor storm knocked my power out this week for four days while we were at the Capitol and in the winter storm, it was out for five days. In addition to the fact that we know more than 700 people that the failure of our government killed in this state, and they did nothing, absolutely nothing to keep it from happening again."