AUSTIN (May 5, 2017) Houston Chronicle — Texas lawmakers tentatively approved a proposal that would eliminate straight-ticket voting in every election beginning in 2020.
After about two hours of heated debate, the House voted 85-59 to do away with the option to automatically vote for one party’s candidates for every office on a ballot, often referred to as “one-punch” voting. The legislation, House Bill 25, would require voters to select their candidate of choice in each race.
Democrats questioned HB 25’s author, GOP Rep. Ron Simmons of Carrollton, about the bill’s potential effects on Latino, Asian American and African American voters. They argued that straight ticket voting allows lines at polling places to move faster, encouraging more Texans, particularly working-class voters, to cast their ballots quickly.
Simmons said he did not consider those questions when he filed the bill.
“People will still come out to vote, they’ll just take a few more seconds to get down the ballot,” Simmons said. “It’ll make sure that people know who they’re voting for.”
But Democrats accused Simmons of trying to reverse or tamp down Democratic candidates’ successes in recent years, especially in local elections in the state’s largest cities.
“HB 25 is a hasty decision based on election results we did not like from 2016,” said Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat from Harris County, where more than one-third of all ballots cast in last November’s election came from straight-ticket Democratic voters.
Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grand Prairie, also reminded his colleagues that federal courts on six separate occasions ruled that the Texas Legislature intentionally discriminated against minority voters, hinting at a lawsuit if HB 25 becomes law.
The Republican-dominated chamber defeated several amendments by Democrats, including one that would have included an opt-out provision for counties which want to keep “one-punch” voting and another that would have allowed active duty service members vote straight ticket.
HB 25 now must pass a third and final vote in the House before it can be sent to the Senate for that chamber’s consideration. The legislative session ends May 29.
