Texas Legislature sends sweeping GOP voting bill to governor

By PAUL J. WEBER and ACACIA CORONADO
Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Legislature has signed off on a sweeping GOP rewrite of election laws after months of protests by Democrats. The nearly 75-page bill that won final approval Tuesday in both the House and Senate would ban 24-hour polling locations and empowers partisan poll watchers. It also would make it a crime for elections officials to send mail-in ballot applications to voters who don’t ask for one. It now goes to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who immediately after the vote announced he’ll sign it. Democrats twice this summer walked out on the bill to stop it from passing. That included fleeing to Washington, D.C., and refusing to come back to the state Capitol for 38 days.