Voting laws skewed against Democratic candidates

Also, watch out for the 'watchers'; Disappearing books

Thanks to new voting laws passed by Texas’ Republican-led Legislature Democrats face a version of the Texas Two-Step to regain some power by getting elected to state offices next month.

The first step is the most important one, of course, and that is convincing people to vote for party candidates in the first place. You would think of the history of mismanagement across the board over the last four years would be pretty convincing. You don’t even have to be paying attention, you just have to live here.

It would make sense that Texas voters would want a change, at least those who care about women’s rights, human rights, solving immigration problems and attempting to keep Texas schoolchildren safe from rampaging gunmen.

Neither the Legislature nor any state elected official has done a thing about those issues except to make them more problematic.

Still, there is enough disinformation out there that it does require convincing voters that your way is best. From what I’ve seen Democratic candidates have done a long hard slog while generally having much less money with which to campaign.

For statewide offices that money is a necessity and those who don’t have it are at a distinct disadvantage. Money means less for candidates to the Legislature but Republicans still have the advantage.

That is just Step One, though. Step Two is trying to make sure your supporters can actually cast a ballot.

The last session of the Legislature passed new voting laws (Thanks, Bryan Hughes!) that makes casting a ballot more of a challenge. The rules are the same for all voters but the restrictions will have more impact on voters who work hourly jobs, have transportation challenges, or may have tricky identification issues.

In other words, those more likely to vote for Democrats.

Not one of these hopeful voters will be trying to do anything wrong. They will simply want to exercise the basic American right as citizens. Some of them will be denied that right even if they have voted in many previous elections.

The laws were passed under the fantasy that Texas has a problem with voter fraud. It is true that a very few wrongful ballots are cast each year — by both Republican and Democratic voters. The total number of these is probably less than a few dozen statewide, certainly not enough to swing an election.

I suspect that Republicans fully know this and merely want to suppress voters who are not friendly to their cause.

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The new Texas voting laws also allow for “poll watchers” from either party to scrutinize the ongoing voting process. That means that people who believe in the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump could be in attendance.

How many poll watchers will show up? How will they act? Such questions won’t fully become clear until after the election.

But the mere suggestion of turmoil — and scenes of what happened in Georgia and Arizona in 2020 — has made signing up poll workers this year much more difficult.

I don’t know of any shortages across East Texas, but I would guess that there are some counties that are running close to the edge, or where people will be working extraordinary hours.

You can’t run elections without workers.

With almost all East Texas counties being rural, people are more likely to know one another and that helps allay some suspicions. That’s no guarantee and some people are going to be suspicious no matter what.

True believers of the Big Lie are not reasonable, and logic will do no good. If they infest the election process — with the direct invitation of the Legislature — expect a mess.

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I can’t tell you how many books have been quietly moved off library shelves in your local school or even your public library child and adult sections.

The thing is no one who knows is going to ‘fess up. Librarians, as a group, are much more about learning and reading than fighting senseless battles over censorship. If refuse to talk about their collections, few people are going press the issue, unless they are seeking to ban a particular book.

The word is across East Texas and elsewhere, some librarians have taken to removing some books from the shelves that they suspect might draw challenges. This is understandable in school libraries where a refusal to remove a book can quickly mean a lost job or a contract not renewed.

The danger is not much less for public librarians. Some will hold strong against book bans, and some will fold but it doesn’t feel right to blame people for trying to save their careers. No one predicted this sorry development.

A lot of this is supposedly predicated on “protecting children” and parental wishes. Balderdash. Parents allow children to watch all manner of filth on television and video games and we’re supposed to believe that a library book is going to corrupt little minds.

Give me a break.

The question is, how much further will it go?

The answer could be delivered by the results of the upcoming election.

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