Patrick Hails Bipartisan Votes on Minor Bills
as Sign that Democrats Don't Trust Elections

Capitol Inside
April 12, 2021

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick sought to create the appearance of bipartisan harmony in the east wing of the state Capitol on Monday when he touted unanimous votes on a couple of bills as milestones in his push for election integrity in 2021.

Patrick didn't let the spirit of camaraderie stop him from taking shots at the most prominent critics of the Senate legislation that's been widely portrayed as voter suppression under the guise of an attack on voter fraud.

"At a time when the rhetoric around election security is being increasingly used in the media and corporate America to divide Texans and Americans, it is notable that Republicans and Democrats came together today in Texas to unanimously pass two bills designed to safeguard our elections," Patrick said in an email tonight.

But Patrick suggested that the measures that he singled out today demonstrated that Democrats and Republicans alike had lost faith in the American election system and were eager to find a middle ground.

"As I noted recently, over the past several years, both parties have expressed mistrust in the final outcome of elections," the lieutenant governor added. "These bills will help us rebuild that trust."  

Patrick failed to mention three other election restriction bills that Senate Republicans approved on party line votes on Monday afternoon with legislation that's designed to make it harder for illegal immigrants, dead people and citizens who want to cast ballots in the mail to vote in Texas in 2022.

State Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen voted for Senate Bill 1113 on Monday when he joined the chamber's other 12 Democrats in opposition to Senate Bills 1112 and 1114. The three measures are being sponsored by State Senator Paul Bettencourt - a Houston Republican who'd served as a voter registrar in Harris County before his election to the Legislature.

SB 1113 would give the state the ability to withhold funds for voter registrars for failing to cancel registrations for voters who are convicted felons or deceased. While Bettencourt has pointed to his experience in his pitch for the legislation, Texas hasn't had a problem with dead people voting in modern times despite isolated cases that are inevitable in any state.

The united shows of support on Senate Bill 1234 and Senate Bill 598 suggest that the measures are relatively in the eyes of the Democrats who've vehemently opposed the other major pieces of the Patrick package for election integrity.

As Patrick sought to portray the Senate as a beacon of serenity on election legislation, a group of influential civil rights and religious leaders teamed up at a Capitol press conference to express their stringent objections to the major voting packages in Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6.

“We don’t have to title the bill ‘voter suppression’ for us to know that is what it does,” Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said.

Patrick gave the impression of senators working on both sides of the aisle on a common goal of restoring the public's trust at the ballot box with his remarks tonight on the bills that whisked through the chamber without dissenting voters. .

"SB 1234 requires that a paper record be created of every ballot that is cast and SB 598 puts a system in place to audit ballots in coming elections so that the public can be confident about the accuracy of a vote tally," the lieutenant governor explained.