Texas Senate PASSES GOP voting bill after Democrat filibustered for 15 hours to try and block it

BREAKING NEWS: Texas Senate PASSES Republican voting bill after Democrat filibustered for 15 hours to try and block it and as House serves arrest warrants for runaway reps.

The measure passed minutes after Senator Carol Alvarado ended her filibuster
Texas legislature rules prevented her from leaning on her desk or drinking water
Critics say the bill targets people of color and voters in Democratic areas
Republicans have called it 'common sense' election security measures
The bill is still likely to stall in Texas's lower house because not enough of the Democratic lawmakers who fled to DC on private jets in July have returned
It passed the Senate after the House speaker served the Dems arrest warrants

By Elizabeth Elkind, Political Reporter and Morgan Phillips, Politics and Alastair Talbot For Dailymail.Com

Published: 16:32 BST, 12 August 2021 | Updated: 16:32 BST, 12 August 2021

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The Texas Senate has passed a bill with new voting restrictions on Thursday morning, after a Democratic Texas lawmaker finished a roughly 15-hour filibuster where she had to speak constantly and not lean on her desk, eat, drink or use the restroom in protest of the state's Republican-backed legislation.

Lawmakers in Texas's upper house voted 18-11 in favor of the bill aimed at enhancing election security.

Debate on the measure began Wednesday evening before State Senator Carol Alvarado began speaking continuously and wrapped just before 9 a.m. local time on Thursday.

'Instead of making it easier to vote, [this bill] makes it easier to intimidate. Instead of making it harder to cheat, it makes it harder to vote,' she said in one of her last statements.

Armed with a back brace, glasses and sneakers, Alvarado spoke through the night on the history of voter discrimination and read public statements decrying the bill and messages sent by supporters urging her to keep going, according to the Texas Tribune.

At one point she opened her drawer and held up a photo of her father.

'When I want to stop talking, I’ve opened this drawer a few times and I look at this man who made me who I am today. Thank you dad,' Alvarado said.

Senator Carol Alvarado began speaking on Wednesday evening and finished on Thursday morning, shortly before the Senate passed the bill in an 18-11 vote

At one point she showed the chamber a photo of her father

Critics of the bill say is an attempt to disenfranchise people of color and other groups that historically vote Democrat.

The bill prohibits drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, both of which were heavily used in Alvarado's Harris County - which includes Houston.

It was first taken up in July but proceedings were paused when more than 50 Democrat lawmakers in the state's lower house took private jets to Washington, DC, leaving too few people to form a quorum for the vote.

The version that passed Thursday morning is the Texas Senate's third try, with only minor tweaks from the original.

The latest version would require partisan poll watchers to receive a neutral training manual from the secretary of state, in a bid to placate critics.

After Alvarado finished speaking her fellow Senator Bryan Hughes, who sponsored the bill, called its provisions 'simple, common sense reforms.'

Republican Senator Bryan Hughes, who is leading the charge on the voting bill, called its provisions 'common sense reforms'

Its passage comes after Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan issued arrest warrants for 52 Democratic lawmakers who broke quorum for the third time over voting rights.

The decision was approved after the Texas House voted 80-12 to move forward with the arrests for absent members, which enabled Phelan to issue the warrants. It's the second time that such a vote has been taking during ongoing quorum-bust.

The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday also overturned a trial court judge's ruling that would have prevented absent Democrats from being arrested.

Texas Democrats fled their state for Washington, D.C. on two private jets chartered at $100,000 to both deny Republicans quorum - the minimum number of members needed present to conduct business - and to draw attention to the effort to expand voting rights.

Some of the runaway Democrats are still in Washington (pictured here holding a press conference on August 6th)

Meanwhile, Republicans promised they would be arrested upon their return to Texas and compelled to come to the legislature to move forward with their election security measures in special session.

The warrants were signed after Democrats failed to show up during the fifth day of the House's second special session, leaving the chamber eight members short of a quorum.

Democrats were hoping that their flit would deny the state house the minimum number of lawmakers required to conduct official business — by fleeing the state to stop Republicans' agenda to potentially ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting, among other sweeping restrictions.

The warrants, first reported by the Dallas Morning News, will be delivered to the House Sergeant-at-arms 'for service' on Wednesday morning, according to Marquez.

More than 50 state lawmakers fled Texas to avoid voting for a controversial election security bill

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the runaway Democrats can be arrested. The Texas House speaker signed their arrest warrants a day later

They were signed after Democrats failed to show up during the fifth day of the House's second special session, leaving the chamber eight members short of a quorum.

Texas Democrat State Rep. Gene Wu, one of the notorious group who fled for DC, temporarily avoided arrest on Wednesday.

State District Judge Chris Morton granted Wu's filing of a writ of habeas corpus, determining that his arrest was unlawful. The arrest would have compelled Wu to return to Austin so the legislature could conduct business.

Morton said he was concerned that Attorney General Ken Paxton hadn't been notified about the arrest warrant, according to ABC 13.

While no doubt a win for the state's Republicans, the bill is once again stalled until enough Democrats return to the Texas House floor. The standoff is now in its 32nd day.

If passed Texas will join 18 states that have enacted 30 election security measures, according to the Brennan Center's July count.

TEXAS' VOTING RIGHTS BILLS: WHAT'S IN THEM AND WHY THE DEMOCRATS THINK THEY 'RESTRICT' ELECTIONS

The bills - House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1 - were filed last week during a special legislative session called by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The proposed legislation creates harsher criminal penalties for people who help voters at the polls or those planning to vote by mail.
The bills, if passed, would be a ban on 24-hour voting. Instead, there would be a new voting window from 6am to 10pm on election day.
Rules would require residents to fill out paperwork if you are taking someone who is not a relative to vote in person.
Regulations would require someone to exit their car during curbside voting.
Bills would mean voters would have to provide their drivers license or the last four digits of their social security number to cast a ballot.
New rules would stop local election officials from sending out mail-in ballots to those who haven't requested them.
Drive-in voting would be banned.
Expands what partisan poll watchers can observe during counts.
Prohibits poll watchers from being removed for violating election laws.
Both bills would increase early voting from eight to nine hours.
Also lowers the population threshold required for counties to provide at least 12 hours of early voting each weekday of the second week of early voting.
Protects the legitimacy of elections and avoids fraud, according to Republicans.

Democrats argue that:

The measures included in the bills would mainly stop minority communities and shift workers from voting because of the restricted hours.
The regulations in the bills would make it harder to control disruptive partisan poll watchers.
Would make it easier for losing candidates to try and overturn election results and harass winning candidates with court battles and recounts.
Democrats also claim the provisions do nothing to make elections more secure in Texas.
Insists the proposed legislation would help further the claims of election fraud Donald Trump has made in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Argue that restricted voting hours on a Sunday would have impacted the ability of black churchgoers, also known as 'souls of the polls', to cast their ballots.
They instead want the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to be passed by Congress to address elections on a federal level.
But Republicans insist that this is a power grab and would represent a 'federal takeover' of elections