Harris, Texas Democratic Lawmakers Discuss Expanding Voting Rights In State - White House

Harris, Texas Democratic Lawmakers Discuss Expanding Voting Rights in State - White House

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2021) US Vice President Kamala Harris and Texas Democratic lawmakers during a meeting at the White House discussed a strategy to overcome restrictive voting measures in the state, spokesperson Symone Sanders said on Wednesday.

"They discussed the restrictive voting measures that already exist in Texas, the measures that would have been added under Texas Senate Bill 7 (SB7), and the path forward to make voting more accessible," Sanders said in a press release.

Harris met with 16 members of the Texas legislature, who in May blocked the passage of a bill that would have made it more difficult for Texans to vote.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott previously said he would call a special session to get the bill passed before the fall.

Texas Senate Bill 7 would limit early voting hours, ban drive-through voting, further restrict voting by mail, ban public officials from sending unsolicited absentee ballot applications, make it easier to overturn an election based on fraud allegations, provide poll watchers more access where election activity is happening, among other things.

Former President Donald Trump's claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election has pushed several Republican states to pass election reform legislation to prevent vote harvesting and other forms of potential abuse.

Several US election security agencies and the Justice Department disputed Trump's voter fraud allegations. The Trump campaign lost more than 60 lawsuits alleging voter fraud in a failed bid to reverse the 2020 election results.