Jeffries: Republicans ‘want to make it harder to vote and easier to steal an election’

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said Republicans in Texas and nationwide “want to make it harder to vote and easier to steal an election” after the Texas Senate passed a sweeping voting restrictions bill.

“The Texas law is shameful, and Republicans clearly in Texas and throughout the country want to make it harder to vote and easier to steal an election. That’s the only way that I can interpret the voter suppression epidemic that we see working its way from one state, Georgia to Arizona to Texas, and all across the country, in so many different ways,” Jeffries told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Fundamental to our democracy is the right to vote, self-government, that the American people get to decide and work for a democracy that reflects the voices of all Americans, not just a certain segment, not just conservatives, not just Republicans, not just people in certain parts of the country, all Americans,” he added.

Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries calls new proposed Texas voting restrictions “shameful.”

“Republicans, clearly in Texas and throughout the country, want to make it harder to vote and easier to steal an election. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/rM8x3T6Yzc

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) May 30, 2021

The Republican-dominated Texas state Senate passed a sweeping elections bill early Sunday morning, according to CBS News, that calls for banning drive-thru voting locations and temporary polling places, and imposing felony penalties on public officials who offer vote-by-mail applications to residents who did not request them.

The legislation, if signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), would also ban 24-hour voting, which was used in the 2020 election by more than 100,000 voters in Harris County, where President Biden won with roughly 56 percent of the vote.

Biden blasted the Texas bill on Saturday, calling the legislation “un-American.”

“Today, Texas legislators put forth a bill that joins Georgia and Florida in advancing a state law that attacks the sacred right to vote. It’s part of an assault on democracy that we’ve seen far too often this year—and often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans,” Biden said in a statement.

“It’s wrong and un-American. In the 21st century, we should be making it easier, not harder, for every eligible voter to vote,” he added.

The Texas voting bill following a trend of Republican-dominated state legislatures, including Georgia’s and Florida’s, advancing restrictive voting laws