Texas Republicans have voted to track down and arrest dozens of Democratic legislators who have fled the state to block passage of a partisan redistricting plan.
The vote passed by 85 to 6, following Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s threat of bribery charges against the absent Democrats.
After the vote, the governor ordered state troopers “to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”.
The law there allows the redistricting to happen if there is a majority vote for redistricting. The law also requires at least 2/3 of members to be present to actually hold a vote. So, this is a tactic that can be used by the minority party to avoid a vote happening at all.
Its a weird law. The democrats have only taken advantage of it a few times and, so far, only for votes relating to redistricting or vote suppression. They did this twice in 2003, once in 2021, and again now. All to stop redistricting or voter suppression votes.
Thanks for the explanation! I am watching this from an outsider’s perspective across the pond, so none of it makes any sense at all. It didn’t really before Trump got in and now even less so that the MAGATs seem to be exploiting every possible way to get what they want