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Texas has a long history of putting up barriers between Black and Brown voters and their ballots. As Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said, “What these folks are doing are simply continuing the trend that’s been going on since Reconstruction, through Jim Crow and up to today: trying to confuse voters, intimidate voters and enact policies that keep people from the ballot box.” Bills SB7 and HB6 are being introduced and must be stopped! See below for a brief overview of each bill along with a link to a petition to sign.

SB7

• Voters who have disabilities would have to show a doctor’s note in order to get a mail-in ballot. While voters who are elderly would simply sign an application, disabled voters would have to schedule and pay for an additional doctor’s appointment weeks in advance of the election just to be able to vote. This is another, unnecessary, barrier between our disabled community and their right to vote.
• Every voting place would be required to have the same number of voting machines. Meaning some popular locations would have extremely long wait times. This only serves as a deterrent to people who want to exercise their constitutional rights.

HB6

• The bill is so broad that it could inhibit political parties, candidates and civic organizations from sending our voters key voting resources, such as mail ballot applications. In 2020, TDP mailed 1 million Texas senior citizens applications for vote by mail to help them vote safely during the pandemic — and the Trump campaign sent these applications to their voters, too. That could be criminal if the Republicans have their way. At the same time, they would ban local election officials from proactively sending these applications to voters, leaving seniors and voters with disabilities with few options to get a mail ballot.

What can you do?

• Call Representative Biedermann’s office at (512) 463-0325 or (512) 463-6161 to express why you oppose HB6
• Call Senator Campbell’s office at (512) 463-0125 or (830) 626-0065 to express why you oppose HB7
• Join our voice to many others by signing the petition at https://txdem.co/sb7hb6
• Use the League of Women Voters’ “Take Action” tools to contact our legislators
• On Thursday, March 25, 2021, beginning at 8:00am Central, you can submit comments to the House Committee on Elections as they consider HB6, by using the House Public Comment form.
• To send a quick note to Rep Biedermann on HB6 like the one pictured below, you can send a text to phone number 50409 with the message SIGN PTPNLW, then follow the instructions. Or to write your own, send a text to 50409 with the word LOWER, then follow the instructions to compose your own note to Rep Biedermann.