By Craig Fahle
Last week, 56 Democrats serving in the Texas legislature bolted Austin for Washington, denying a quorum necessary to pass a package of bills aimed at changing voting rules in the state. It is at best a way to stall the bills and refocus public attention onto voter suppression efforts around the country, and to prod Democrats in the US Senate to eliminate the filibuster and pass meaningful updates to the voting rights act. It is likely doomed to fail, but the fight is just, and necessary.
Targeted changes that potentially affect a specific group of voters used to be subject to federal judicial review but has pretty much been wiped out by the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder and its 2021 decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. Both decisions negated major parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Republican controlled legislatures around the country have been nibbling at the edges of these bills for years … now, it is a feeding frenzy.
Why now? Because Trump’s “big lie” about the election somehow being stolen gave these legislatures the excuse they needed to pass bills they didn’t have the guts to try before. Despite any evidence of widespread fraud, and a jaw-droppingly poor performance in trying to adjudicate the “big lie”, legislators can now with a straight face claim that people’s faith in our electoral system is at risk.
“Election integrity” is the cover Republicans have been looking for to go back to the days of voter repression. It is not a coincidence that dozens of states have passed or are considering bills that place new restrictions on voting, including reducing access to mail in and absentee ballots, reduction in the number of polling places, reducing drop box locations, reducing early voting hours and locations, and tougher ID requirements. In many states, they have the votes to do it, and the courts have decided that they have no role in ensuring that voting is fair and equitable.
What is the proper response from Democrats? How does one fight for something as fundamental as the right to vote without impediments that are rooted in a bad faith argument? Leaving the state to prevent a quorum seems extreme, but this is exactly what their voters want them to do: Fight the good fight as hard as they can, and as long as they can. Denying a quorum is the state legislative equivalent of a hail Mary pass: there is a slim chance of success, but it shows that you won’t back down. Unlike the minority in the U.S. Senate, who can gum up the works behind the allegedly sacred cloak of the filibuster, state legislators are limited in the tools they possess.
Republicans and Democrats alike have used this tactic recently. It rarely works. Symbolically, though, it matters. Democratic voters have argued for years that their party needs to fight as hard, and as dirty as they believe the Republicans do for the things they want. If Democrats give up now, they run the risk of alienating their own, which will do more to crush them in the midterms than anything the Republicans and their sudden feigned interest in “voter integrity” ever could.