Texas Republicans have voted to track down and arrest dozens of Democratic legislators who have fled the state to block passage of a partisan redistricting plan.
The vote passed by 85 to 6, following Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s threat of bribery charges against the absent Democrats.
After the vote, the governor ordered state troopers “to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”.
So. That just means they still won’t vote in redistricting I dont think they thought that through
They’ll arrest and force them to attend the vote to achieve quorum, and then it’ll pass. They don’t need the votes, just the people.
Honestly, at this point they could just break the rules and pass it anyway. Who’s gonna enforce the law?
Youre probably right about them breaking the rules. They may pull something clearly illegal like appoint temporary members of the state legislature just for the vote. But this is going to be like burning down chernobyl. Texas was already gerrymandered into oblivion.
There are significantly more registered democrats in Texas than Republicans. Proportionately greater than California. The fact that they are dominated by Republicans shows how lacking in democratic values the state is. Sad that they are going to throw away the last remaining bits.
It’s more symbolic to force your enemy to bend the knee.
The gerrymandering bill has enough votes to pass. Democrats can’t do anything about that.
If enough representatives don’t show up, there’s not enough quorum to even hold a vote.