By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
When nearly 60 Texas Democrats fled Texas to block Republicans from passing what they thought was a strongly partisan voting bill, State Representative Eddie Morales, representing Del Rio’s District 74, was one of a hand full of Democrats who stayed behind.
“I believe staying to both debate and articulate my reasons for opposing the bill is the best way for me to represent my district,” Morales said Saturday morning from Eagle Pass. He planned to return to Austin before Monday morning. “I support the decisions of my colleagues who choose to fight this bill differently, using parliamentary procedures.”
Morales said he and his fellow Democrats saw that they were going to “get a bill rammed down their throats” that they’d have little say in.
However, going to Washington D.C. on a chartered plane wasn’t the best lane for Morales. “For me, leaving the state just didn’t work,” he said.
Since staying along with a handful of other Democrats, he’s been thrust into the role of mediating and defending his fellow Democrats.
“There was talk of changing the locks on the doors of Democrat offices, taking their parking spaces, stripping them of committee assignments, but we talked to the leadership and that’s gone away for now,” Morales said.
Although he stayed behind, it wasn’t because he supported the Republican bills.
Some of the proposals in the bills, according to the Austin Statesman are:
— Ban drive-thru voting or casting a ballot from inside a vehicle unless participating in curbside voting due to a disability.
— Ban overnight voting by requiring polls to be open a minimum of nine hours from between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.
— Require election officials to install a video surveillance system that records vote-counting activities, with a livestream made available to the public in counties with 100,000 residents or more.
“Texas is already dead last in voter access before this bill,” he said. “Now, we want to make it even more difficult for people to be able to vote.”
He said there isn’t a large track record of illegal voting and thinks there’s plenty of laws in place to ensure there are not any waves of illegal votes being cast.
“Since 2005, there have been 140 convictions for voter fraud in the State of Texas,” he said. “The Texas Attorney General has a $2 million dollar budget for voter fraud. That is wasteful spending.”
However, Val Verde County Republican party chairman Frank Lopez said Morales’ efforts just aren’t enough.
“He needs to go on the record demanding that his fellow Democrats do what they were elected to do,” he said.
