Texas state Senate passes voting bill after 15-hour filibuster by Democrat

Texas state Senator Carol Alvarado, a Democrat from Houston, for 15 hours had been on her feet speaking, not allowed to sit or lean against the desk, not allowed to take a bathroom break or drink water as she filibustered a Republican-backed voting bill.

The first special session was derailed when more than 50 Texas Democrats decamped to Washington in early July to break the required quorum for legislation.

Alvarado's filibuster marathon began shortly before 6 pm on Wednesday as more a symbolic gesture against the bill than a realistic strategy to stop the bill.

She filled the time by retelling the history of the fight for voting rights, reading testimony against SB-1 from the public and going over portions of the bill.

Throughout the night into the morning, her Democratic Senate colleagues took turns asking her lengthy questions to help out, often speaking much slower than usual.

Eventually, Alvarado stopped around 9 am on Thursday, and the Senate quickly moved to vote on the bill, which forbids local officials from taking various steps to make voting more accessible and tightens the vote-by-mail process. Senate Bill 1 was passed by a vote of 18-11 and is now headed to the House.

The bill is opposed by Democratic legislators, civil rights groups and advocates for minorities and people with disabilities. They are concerned that the bill would limit access and suppress marginalized voters.

Before ending her filibuster, Alvarado asked: "What's wrong with drive-through voting during a pandemic? What's wrong with 24-hour voting? Why can't we have expanded voting hours for the people who have to work late? Where is all the so-called fraud? Where does it end?"

Republican Senator Bryan Hughes, who authored the bill, said on Wednesday that the legislation makes it hard for people to cheat but easy to vote.

"It cracks down on those vote-harvesters, those paid political operatives who try to coerce voters, who try to mislead voters, who try to get in between the voter and her ballot. We will not have that in Texas," he said.

However, the bill's fate is uncertain, with unknown numbers of House Democrats remaining outside of Austin.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan signed a warrant early this week to arrest more than 40 Democratic lawmakers who have refused to return to the Statehouse chamber to continue to break the quorum.

The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday halted a ruling that protected absent Democratic lawmakers from arrest, giving Republicans the tool to force Democrats back into the chamber.

Then three state district judges in Harris County signed an order Wednesday to temporarily protect the absent Democrats from civil arrest. It's unclear how long that orders will remain effect.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he will make similar moves to fight those orders in the court and vows to take it all the way back to the Texas Supreme Court.