Month: September 2021

On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law placing new restrictions on voting. The signing into law of Senate Bill 1 adds new restrictions to early voting and new identification requirements, which critics say will disproportionately impact voters of color. Abbott said at an event where he signed the bill: “It does make it easier than ever before for anybody to go cast a ballot. It does also, however, make sure it is harder than ever for people to cheat at the ballot box.”

“Reforms are needed to the election laws of this state to ensure that fraud does not undermine the public confidence in the electoral process,” the text of Texas’ SB 1 states. The law also creates new rules and penalties for assisting others who fill out a registration form or ballot, which could makes it harder for people with disabilities or language barriers to vote. It also requires large Texas counties that lean Democratic to live stream video at ballot-counting sites.

Texas is one of several Republican-leaning states that have pushed for new voting restrictions after former President Donald Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed restrictive voting bill into law in May, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp enacted sweeping changes to the state’s election rules in March. The new restrictions have prompted national attention and lawsuits in all three states.

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President Biden is expected this week to outline a new “6-pronged” strategy involving the public and private sectors in order to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge of the delta variant. Biden is set to deliver remarks on Thursday in hopes of controlling the resurgent pandemic, with positive cases and deaths increasing, while vaccination rates remain an issue.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “The president will speak to the American people about his robust plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and boost vaccinations. As (Biden) has said since Day 1, his administration will pull every lever to get the pandemic under control.” Biden will also likely address the issue of mask requirements in schools, with public health experts in agreement that school children, teachers and staff should all be ordered to wear masks to help prevent the additional spread of the virus. Psaki said Tuesday: “I will note that we’ve seen that there is a range of ways that we have increased vaccinations across the country, or vaccinations have increased. One of them is private sector companies mandating in different capacities that their employees get vaccinated. Or certain school districts mandate.”

Positive COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are climbing nearly as high as they’ve been since the pandemic first surged in March 2020. Additionally, the full recovery of the economy is dependent on getting children safely back to school, adults back to work, and assisting retail businesses and restaurants.

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