Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6 are fundamentally anti-democratic, anti-voter assaults on the right to vote for all working people. The Gulf Coast labor movement stands united in our opposition to these attacks on our constitutional rights.

Last year's election were the most secure in our history, showing that we can increase voter turnout and keep our elections secure with common-sense reforms. Instead of building on these successes and expanding access to the ballot, Gov. Abbott and his allies have ripped a page straight out of the Jim Crow playbook by trying to make it more difficult to vote.

Texas is already one of the hardest states to vote in in the country, and SB7 and HB6 would make it worse Together, these bills would:

• Ban drive-through and outdoor voting.

• Restrict voters from dropping off completed absentee ballots.

• Criminalize small mistakes for people assisting voters to register.

• Discourage volunteers from driving voters, including the elderly, to polling places.

• Eliminate large voting sites meant to make voting quicker.

• Mandate overzealous and voter roll purges that would disqualify many eligible voters.

• Increase burdens on voters with disabilities to access assistance at the polls.

Voter suppression bills under consideration in the Texas legislature are squarely aimed at counties like Harris with majority Black and Latino populations that have worked to expand voting rights during the pandemic. Instead of focusing on solving problems like our failing energy grid, big government conservatives are working to disenfranchise people of color and take away power from the local officials who ran the safest, most secure election in Texas history.

Our vote is our voice. Texas should be doing everything it can to ensure every eligible voter can cast a ballot, instead of working to create a new Jim Crow 2.0 system of voter suppression.

These bills are dangerous, anti-democratic , racist, and must be blocked. Tell your representatives in the Texas House of Representatives to vote no on SB7 and HB6!