Texas HofR
© Julia Reihs/KUTTexas House of Representatives
The election bill that prompted Texas Democrats to retreat from the state earlier this summer to stall the legislative process has advanced in the House, according to the state Legislature.

The Republican-backed election bill, a slightly revised version of Senate Bill 1, which aims to bolster voter identification rules and clamp down on vote-by-mail rules, passed the House in a mostly party-line vote of 79-37 on Thursday following a 12-hour debate.

Final approval of the bill is expected to come from the Senate on Friday, although the legislation will not immediately head to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott 's desk. The House committee that approved the bill replaced the Senate's version, which passed the upper chamber 18-11 on Aug. 12, with its own, and the two chambers will first have to compromise on changes made.

"This legislation will make our elections process fair and uniform," Abbott tweeted prior to the vote on Thursday. "I look forward to signing this bill into law."

If signed by the governor, key measures of the bill would end the practice of drive-thru voting, which a limited number of polling locations offered in 2020 to address public health concerns related to the pandemic. The legislation would also end 24-hour voting during the early voting period, another practice used for the first time during the pandemic.

Democrats' protest against the bill continued until last week, when enough Democrats returned home from their Washington, D.C., excursion that began on July 12, allowing the government to achieve a quorum.

Opponents of the bill argue it is anti-voter legislation that will make it more difficult for minorities to vote in future elections. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas tweeted Thursday:
"Aiming to ban drive-thru voting, restrict early voting hours and embolden partisan poll watchers is — by definition — voter suppression."
The Democrats had also opposed House Bill 3, a similar piece of legislation regarding voting access, and they held a weeklong voting rights virtual conference in Washington last month.

Similar criticism has been levied at legislation aiming to tighten voting security in states like Georgia , which was met with widespread boycotts earlier this year after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation aimed at "making it easier to vote and harder to cheat."