John Cornyn Lies About Voting Rights Bill

In Austin the Travis County Clerk's office says that as of today, their office "has rejected about fifty percent of applications for ballot by mail that have been received for the March 1, 2022 primary election," due to changes to ID requirements made by Texas' new voting law.

Last week in San Antonio a Bexar County election official told Texas Public Radio “Yesterday we received about 80 mail-in ballot applications. Forty-two of those did not fulfill the new requirements. So we have to reject those.”

In Houston Harris County elections officials are reporting similar issues rejection rates and it’s all because of the recently passed Senate Bill 1.

Sen. Cornyn called the Freedom to Vote Act "unconstitutional" in remarks on the senate floor. Coming from a former judge you’d think he’d know better since the United States constitution states in: Article I, section 4, clause 1 - "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."

Also Justice Scalia wrote when interpreting Article I, section 4, clause 1 in AZ v. Inter Tribal Council of AZ: “The power of Congress over the ‘Times, Places and Manner’ of congressional elections ‘is paramount, and may be exercised at any time, and to any extent which it deems expedient.’”

John Cornyn publicly stated “Based on the way our Democratic colleagues talk about the state of voting rights in America, you would think the Supreme Court had struck down the Voting Rights Act.” Cornyn also claims the Voting Rights Act of 1965 "worked as congress intended" but fails to mention that it was Section 4, pre-clearance that did all the work and that’s the part the Supreme Court overturned. Cornyn also fails to mention that Texas was repeatedly sued under Section 4 and found guilty of violating the Voting Rights Act when redistricting, including during the last redistricting cycle.

Cornyn calls Democratic efforts to pass voting rights legislation "power grab" when in fact it is Texas Republicans who have grabbed power by packing and cracking congressional districts to gain partisan advantage. Without pre-clearance a state can redistrict or change any election law in a totally illegal way then until they are sued and lose, those laws or districts are in effect often for several election cycles. Texas was sued in 2011 and the case took several election cycles to get through the courts without anything ever being done about the violations. In the latest round of redistricting last year minority voters suffered discrimination again as Texas Republicans redistricted in such a way that African-American voters lost the only district from which they could elect a representative of their choosing even while Texas gained two additional congressional seats.

Cornyn’s remarks on the senate floor included the claim that Democratic concerns over voter ID are a sham but fails to mention it isn’t the requirement for a photo ID that Democrats object to it’s the difficulty that low income minority voters have in getting the very limited kind of ID that is required. Only the Texas Department of Public Safety offers the necessary ID and getting there then waiting in line can take all day which can be a real hardship for working people who don’t drive.

Cornyn makes much of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as Democrats being unwilling to vote for the bill but fails to mention that the reason is they want Republicans to support it too.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 19, 2022