Texas Democrats leaving state to stop GOP voting bill

dcsports said:

It came up in 2003. Unless the governor where they are is willing to help, there isn't anything the state can do. They obviously have an arrangement with the District of Columbia.

Abbott can just keep calling special sessions. It only takes a handful to cave, and they'll have a quorum - and Democrats will have virtually no representation. Most likely they'll sit out one session and pout, then come back to Texas, and report for the next.

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No other states are going to force them back, most states will not waste time extraditing anyone for minor offenses. Imagine if you had an arrest warrant for a traffic fine, and you were outside the state what do you think would happen? Answer is it depends on the state, some might extradite you back to that state, while others would just suspend your license and priveledges until the fine was settled and the warrant ended or the statute of limitations ran out.

The crime of not showing up for session though would be even lower on the priority scale for states to extradite, so texas likely will not expect other states to send them back but rather arrest them when they return.

gbg3 said:

They'll need to stay out of Texas until August 7th (to avoid arrest) at which point Abbot will declare another special session. It's a silly game to make a political statement which will simply look increasingly stupid and, if they keep it up, will keep them from their homes and families for months.

MSN

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And if they stay till September 1st the governor can call all the special sessions he wants but with no legislative staff, nothing is going to get done since he vetoed their funding... Who blinks first?

beerftw said:

No other states are going to force them back, most states will not waste time extraditing anyone for minor offenses. Imagine if you had an arrest warrant for a traffic fine, and you were outside the state what do you think would happen? Answer is it depends on the state, some might extradite you back to that state, while others would just suspend your license and priveledges until the fine was settled and the warrant ended or the statute of limitations ran out.

The crime of not showing up for session though would be even lower on the priority scale for states to extradite, so texas likely will not expect other states to send them back but rather arrest them when they return.

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It's not a crime at all..

Ikari said:

Well I wouldn't say rampant. One of those was for the Democrat primary and that was caught. One was because the State does not notify ex-felons about voting eligibility. One was some woman convincing someone else to change their vote.

So at best you have 134+1+1=136, all caught mind you. In the 2020 election, there were 11,315,056 votes cast. 136/11315056 = 0.0012%

Hard to call 0.0012% "rampant".

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Is it zero? Nope.

Voter ID should bring it close to, if not zero. There's no reason to oppose ID requirements. None.

Unless of course there's an ulterior motive.

Cardinal said:

If voters disapprove of what Democrats are doing then they can punish them at the ballot box...using the democratic system Democrats preserved for them. If Republicans succeed and voters disapprove, then there will be no punishment at the ballot box, because they can’t be punished at the ballot box.

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What a load of political manure.

Schism said:

Is it zero? Nope.

Voter ID should bring it close to, if not zero. There's no reason to oppose ID requirements. None.

Unless of course there's an ulterior motive.

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100% and 0% aren't realistically obtainable. But 0.0012% is functionally zero.

lol

jpn said:

There is no factual basis to claim election fraud in Texas in 2020.

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Yes there is. I even posted a handful of articles.

jpn said:

So why all the new restrictions?

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For the same reason TSA exists to screen fliers. One shoe bomber has us all taking off our shoes at the airport and you don't complain, because it makes us safer. Every legal vote should count. Every illegal vote should not.

Ikari said:

100% and 0% aren't realistically obtainable. But 0.0012% is functionally zero.

lol

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Do you want to drink clean water, or functionally clean water?

lol

Schism said:

Do you want to drink clean water, or functionally clean water?

lol

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If by "functionally clean water" you mean no affect on biological systems; then functionally clean is good enough.

lol, you think you getting 100% clean water out of the tap? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Get out of here with your dipshit argument about how zero needs to be obtained. 0.0012% didn't even leave a scratch. Dumb ****ing argument to excuse voting access restrictions. ****ing Red Coat States and their anti-American policies. They should all move to China.

Cardinal said:

The point of democracy isn’t to end democracy.

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Democracy is not ended though by majority rule having majority rule. We are a republic, not just at a federal level but at state levels, leaders are democratically elected but it never was a democracy, but rather a democratic republic from the start.

The whole thing requiring 2/3rds members present in texas though was to give the minority a say rather than the majority just passing what they wanted with no input from the minority. It is similar to the filibuster idea, however texas does have it's own filibuster, which could have been used, the fact it was not on the table meant the majority party had full support, as during the texas constitutional carry debates and vote, a single republican voting against with all democrats could have doomed the bill.

The texas senate must vote 3/5ths to even allow a bill to be brought to the floor for a vote, boy does 3/5ths sound kinda racist. So texas has hurdles that simply prevent the majority from doing as they please, filibuster(though much more strict than the filibuster the federal govt uses) and requiring beyond a majority to even allow a vote on the bill. This simply means the majority in the state govt is in lockstep and the opposition does not have enough power to stop them.

Democrats could have tried a filibuster to bring the bill to full debate with their input, but instead they decided to leave the state to prevent the vote altogether. Wendy davis made headlines with her filibuster, but current texas democrats do not want to put in the effort of debate or fight the tough fight, they want to flee and abandon their constituents and pretend they are being honorable by doing so.

Cardinal said:

This officially just became boring. If you live in Texas and don’t approve of what Democrats are doing, vote against them in the next election. And if Republicans are successful then, well, you probably won’t need to.

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Not our fault your debate tactics have derailed the conversation.

beerftw said:

Democracy is not ended though by majority rule having majority rule.

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Depends on what they’re trying to do.

Ikari said:

If by "functionally clean water" you mean no affect on biological systems; then functionally clean is good enough.

lol, you think you getting 100% clean water out of the tap? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Get out of here with your dipshit argument about how zero needs to be obtained. 0.0012% didn't even leave a scratch. Dumb ****ing argument to excuse voting access restrictions. ****ing Red Coat States and their anti-American policies. They should all move to China.

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How many successful terrorist attacks in the US using aircraft since 9-11?

You want to show ID to fly? Our elections need to be just as secure. Why some pretend that's oppressive is beyond me.

Schism said:

How many successful terrorist attacks in the US using aircraft since 9-11?

You want to show ID to fly? Our elections need to be just as secure. Why some pretend that's oppressive is beyond me.

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Not enough to live in fear everyday, lol

These laws don't deal with Voter ID, they are access restrictions. Would help if you didn't lie in trying to construct an argument.

Cardinal said:

Um...are their families being held captive in a dungeon?

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No. In fact, maybe they could send the private jet to pick up all their families and comfortable lodging could be provided for all of them in DC. School starts for their kids in August but no big deal. They can just miss school. Let's just hope they are very well paid state representatives because very lengthy family vacations can get quite expensive.

prometeus said:

Yea, pretty much like that moter****er in the Senate that did not allow a vote for SCOTUS nominee.

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Glad somebody remembers when Rs stole a SCOTUS seat by just ... refusing to vote. Apparently Rs find it a dereliction of duty to do exactly what Rs did. So ridiculous, just put on your big boy pants and admit you have no principles and will do anything to get more power.

BlueTex said:

And if they stay till September 1st the governor can call all the special sessions he wants but with no legislative staff, nothing is going to get done since he vetoed their funding... Who blinks first?

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We'll watch and see. The law will pass in Texas, IMO, and the Dems will make complete fools of themselves and their party in the meantime.

dcsports said:

Texas Democrats leaving state to stop GOP voting bill

The move marks the first time in 18 years that Democrats crossed state lines in an attempt to break quorum.

abc13.com

Ridiculous. They can give input if they want to do so. They can certainly vote against bills. But this is abandoning their duty.

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I think it will take another 50 years or so before anyone will buy the GOP complaining about procedural unfairness. After your procedurally-generated SCOTUS and procedurally handpicked base of permitted voters is forgotten, after no one remembers blocking every Dem court appointment no matter how qualified, when everyone has completely forgotten how much the GOP of this era cheated, then maybe an R can pretend to care about duties. Also after we forget how you tried to block the constitutional transfer of power and negate an election to keep your guy in charge. This is beyond dumb; are you now pretending to play by rules?

NWRatCon said:

I am astonished that there are still people out there who try to assert that this is not a "voter suppression bill". We know they're lying, they know they're lying, and no one with an ounce of honesty can make such assertions. That, I think, is the problem. Too many people involved in this process, from the Governor, the GOP, and their acolytes possess an ounce of honesty between them.

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they don’t care.

They know it’s a lie and they don’t care.

They know it’s voter suppression and they don’t care.

they have shown us who they are and they don’t care.

dcsports said:

This kind of thing isn't helpful, and doesn't advance the discussion.

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I think if you are acting in good faith and want to advance the discussion you should recognize the bad faith on the part of your political allies. None of this is happening in a vacuum. It’s not as if we exist in a world where the Republicans and Trump supporters are perfect, never wrong about anything, are always acting in good faith, and the world would magically transform itself into a utopia if Democrats just did every single thing they wanted. That is the basic frame of reference from which most Trump supporters and Republicans have been brainwashed, tricked, and fooled into believing and it’s not at all helpful. So maybe drop the ridiculous and stupid allegations of voter fraud, acknowledge it’s a scam, and that would be super helpful. K? Thanks.

nota bene said:

Speaking of Oregon, here's a little comparison/contrast piece on Oregon vs Texas, "Does the Walk Out Preserve or Endanger Democracy? For the Press, It Depends Which Party Is Walking.": https://www.nationalreview.com/corn...=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=first

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National Review, that bastion of rational, moderate thinking - not.

Cardinal said:

They can also vote to arrest Xenu.

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Not sure if they have authority to so vote... considering they don't have a quorum.

NWRatCon said:

National Review, that bastion of rational, moderate thinking - not.

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The article has valid points, which I notice you addressed by slaughtering the source.

W_Heisenberg said:

they don’t care.

They know it’s a lie and they don’t care.

They know it’s voter suppression and they don’t care.

they have shown us who they are and they don’t care.

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^^ What projection looks like.

skeptic llc said:

Glad somebody remembers when Rs stole a SCOTUS seat by just ... refusing to vote. Apparently Rs find it a dereliction of duty to do exactly what Rs did. So ridiculous, just put on your big boy pants and admit you have no principles and will do anything to get more power.

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That's a stupid argument. Its happened multiple times in the past including twice to one President. Nominees have been denied confirmation votes multiple times. Quit crying like its never happened, it has.