Carrie Isaac desires that democracy not be taught in Texas classrooms. Republican rookie Isaac introduced a 124-word bill last week to restrict polling sites at any “institution of higher education,” and on Tuesday she announced that she is drafting a bill to forbid polling places at K–12 public and charter schools as well.
She mentioned the fatal knife attack at a university in 2017 and the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde last year in a press statement, saying,
“We must do everything we can to keep our school campuses as safe as possible.” “I know firsthand how intense the feelings can get at voting locations, and I won’t wait for further violence to happen before taking action.”
Both incidents were unrelated to voting.
Democrats Want To Have Polling Places In Larger College Campuses
In the current legislative session, Democrats have pushed for legislation that would require polling places on larger college campuses.
A group that encourages young people to vote, MOVE Texas, denounced the law as “one of the most devious attempts to silence young voters” in a statement.
According to James Slattery, the senior supervising legislative attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, an organization that fights for voting rights and criminal justice reform, universities and schools are frequently used as polling places because they are large enough to accommodate large numbers of voters and are well-known in the neighborhood.
To suggest that democracy and voting pose a greater risk to young people than the widespread availability of guns in the state seems absurd, he continued.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who controls the agenda for the first two months of the legislative session, urged lawmakers to concentrate on bills relating to issues like school safety, the border, and property taxes even though Texas Republicans have historically made elections laws and voting a top priority.
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