Biden dismisses Texas voting bill as attack on democracy

Biden dismisses Texas voting bill as attack on democracy

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Joe Biden assailed a voting bill in Texas Saturday as an attack on democracy, as it lines up to become the next Republican-led state to restrict voting access for people of color.

Biden said Texas is now joining Georgia and Florida in seeking to limit "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 after a final draft of the legislation began circulating at the Texas legislature.

Among other restrictive provisions the Texas law bans drive-in voting, limits voting by mail, and cuts back on voting hours on election day.

Proponents say the law is designed to make voting more secure but critics say it aims to make it more cumbersome for Blacks, Latinos and other non-whites who tend to vote Democratic.

Republicans say they are acting to head off election fraud, as claimed by Donald Trump in his repeated false assertion that he beat Biden last November and that the election was stolen from him.

Since that election, many Republican-led states have taken up bills that make voting more difficult.

Georgia, which traditionally votes Republican but sided with Biden this time, was among the first to adopt such a law, in March.

Passage of the Georgia triggered a loud backlash among leaders of the business and entertainment worlds denouncing the legislation.

On Saturday, Biden again called on Congress to pass two bills designed to protect and favor people’s right to vote without restrictions. Democrats’ slim majority in the legislature has prevented the bills from being passed.