Beto: Texas Voting Integrity Bill ‘Does the Exact Same Thing’ as Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests

EXCERPT:

O’ROURKE: “That’s absolutely right. And it’s worth remembering that our democracy is the exception and not the rule in world history, and the exception on the planet today, and as hard fought as this democracy was won, we can so easily lose it with provisions like this one. But I also want to call attention to some of these seemingly innocuous  provisions like closing apology places in Texas, or quote/unquote 'standardizing elections.' You know, the poll tax 100 years ago was somewhat innocuous sounding. The -- the literacy test, the -- the counting the number of jelly beans in a jar. But in every instance they were used to try to stop black Texans and -- and African-Americans throughout the former confederacy from being able to use their rights to vote. And in that same way, ending souls to the polls and closing polling places in predominately African-American neighborhoods is doing the exact same thing in 2021.”