LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!
Members of the Texas state House voted 76-4 to deploy law enforcement to track down and arrest 58 Democrat members who fled the state to break quorum to prevent a vote on a Republican-backed election bill.
The House members voted on two motions brought by Rep. Will Metcalf, chair of the House Administration Committee to record present session members, ban members in attendance from leaving the chamber without first obtaining approval, and enable “the sergeant at arms, or officers appointed by him, send for all absentees … under warrant of arrest if necessary.”
Texas law requires a two-thirds quorum of the 150-member House body to approve legislation, which it just falls short of without the 58 Democrat members. The members’ escape thwarted a vote on the Republican-backed election bill that seeks to end 24-hour polling places, ban ballot drop boxes and empower partisan poll watchers, which Democrats claim are voter suppression tactics.
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