SB 5 creates new misdemeanor offense, codifies parts of court-ordered interim remedy.
Austin, Texas – Today, the Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 5 on second reading. Governor Greg Abbott fast-tracked the legislation by naming it a last-minute emergency item, allowing it to be placed on Tuesday’s calendar.
SB 5 would allow Texas voters without photo identification previously required under SB 14, the most restrictive voter ID law in the country, to cast a regular ballot by showing an alternative form of identification and signing a “reasonable impediment” declaration form under threat of prosecution for perjury. The law also creates a new class A misdemeanor offense for intentionally making a false statement or providing false information on the declaration.
State Representative Eddie Rodriguez issued the following statement following SB 5’s passage:
“SB 5 might seem like reasonable legislation on its face, an effort to protect the security of the electoral process without placing an undue burden on access to the ballot box. That is not the case.
“We only debated SB 5 today because Governor Abbott named it an emergency item in the eleventh hour, frantically working to have it placed on the calendar.
“Governor Abbott is alarmed because the chickens are coming home to roost. The intentionally discriminatory voter ID law and redistricting maps he championed as attorney general have been ruled against by federal courts numerous times, raising the spectre of a reinstated ‘preclearance requirement.’
“Of course Governor Abbott is afraid of ‘preclearance.’ When the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature has changed the state’s election laws in recent years, it wasn’t motivated by the desire to secure voters’ rights or expand the franchise. ‘Preclearance’ would make it harder for Republicans to disenfranchise the young, poor and minority populations they feel threaten the Texas GOP’s one-party rule.
“My Republican colleagues argued that SB 5 is a good-faith attempt to align the law with these rulings because they hope to get themselves out of trouble with the courts. But the United States is a nation governed by the rule of law, and unlike the Texas Legislature, the federal judiciary isn’t beholden to the governor and lieutenant governor.”