Stacey Abrams: Election Integrity Bills Are 'Subversion of American Democracy'
Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) said Thursday that voter integrity laws being established in states such as Texas are a “subversion of American democracy.”
“We are watching the subversion of American democracy by allowing legislators, people in power to overturn the outcome of elections,” Abrams said during an appearance on Crooked Media’s Pod Save America.
Abrams’ remarks were mostly targeted at Texas’s new election integrity bill, which works to expand the freedoms of poll watchers, create new voter ID requirements, and crack down on voting by mail.
According to Abrams, the bill would give lawmakers the authority to overturn an election if they “don’t like the outcome.”
“I mean, in Texas, the bill that was stopped briefly — unfortunately, it will come back in special session — said that you could try to overturn an election without proof of fraud, which means if you just don’t like the outcome,” Abrams said. “And there are gonna be those who push back and say that’s not what it says exactly, but I’m a good enough lawyer.”
Abrams likened the Texas voting bill to Georgia’s, which Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed; it limits the number of ballot drop boxes and establishes photo ID requirements for absentee voters, among other things.
Abrams, also a romance novelist, insisted the “porous” and “poorly written” election integrity bills are designed to “allow the unspoken to become the rule,” further claiming that elections can now be overturned by the “bad actions of others,” something she believes is “deeply problematic.”
President Joe Biden has also been critical of Texas’s voter integrity efforts, saying voting as a “sacred right is under assault with incredible intensity like [he has] never seen.” Biden also insisted efforts to ensure fair elections are “simply un-American.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) responded to Biden’s criticism, saying he “wouldn’t be surprised if Biden criticized the Senate bill without even having ever read it.”
“I bet he doesn’t have a clue what’s in there,” Abbott noted. “This is, of course, the same person who reacted swiftly, calling me a Neanderthal for opening things up, and he proved to be 100 percent wrong about that. He’s going to be proven to be 100 percent wrong about this.”
“The voter law in the state of Texas is far more accommodative and provides far more hours to vote than it does in President Biden’s home state of Delaware, where he voted in the last election, where they offer exactly zero early voting days,” Abbott added.
Other states, such as Alabama, are also working to address voter fraud. Alabama’s Gov. Kay Ivey (R) recently signed legislation into law that makes it a crime to vote in Alabama and at least one other state in the same election. In addition, Ivey also signed a bill last month to ban curbside voting.
Follow Kyle on Twitter @RealKyleMorris and Facebook.
