Texas Democrats To Leave State In Effort To Block Restrictive Voting Laws

Without a quorum, the state's GOP can't move forward with any of its proposals during the special legislative session.

Texas’ Democratic lawmakers are planning to leave the state Monday in order to deny Republicans a quorum during a special legislative session, blocking a vote on a restrictive elections law and several other contentious GOP bills, several media outlets have reported. At least 58 of the state’s Democrats are planning to flee Austin, with most of them heading to Washington, D.C. They could need to stay there for up to several weeks, until the special session called by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) comes to a close, sources told NBC News. Those lawmakers were at the Austin airport on Monday readying for takeoff, Vice News reported. Without those Democrats present, Republicans won’t have the quorum of two-thirds of lawmakers that the Texas Constitution requires for conducting any legislative business. That means a pair of voting measures that Republicans have been rapidly advancing in the past few days won’t be able to move forward. The bills would establish harsher voter ID requirements, ban 24-hour and drive-through voting, prohibit election officials from sending voters unsolicited absentee ballots, and expand protections for partisan poll watchers.