Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says opponents of voter fraud bill are ‘nest of liars’

AUSTIN — In a far-reaching news conference Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick lashed out against opponents of the Senate’s voter fraud bill, including American Airlines, the news media and Democrats, calling them a “nest of liars” who were “race baiting” for political gain.

“Senate Bill 7 is about voter security, not about voter suppression,” Patrick said. “I’m tired of the lies and the nest of liars who continue to repeat them.”

The bill, which is one of several voter fraud bills filed across the country, has come under scrutiny in the last week for limiting the number of early voting hours, restricting the number of voting machines at countywide polling places and giving more leeway to poll watchers, who are hired by political campaigns and parties.

American Airlines and other corporate leaders in Texas have expressed their opposition to the bill, with nearly 50 Black corporate leaders taking out a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News on Sunday calling for the blocking of “voter suppression laws before the Legislature.”

Patrick, who has campaigned for stricter voting laws for more than a decade, said Senate Bill 7 changes nothing for mail-in ballots, early voting hours or Election Day procedures.

“Anyone who says different is lying to you, whether they write with a pen, talk with a microphone or hold political office,” said Patrick, a Republican who is arguably the most powerful person in the Legislature as the head of the Senate.

Voting rights advocates, however, say the bill makes several changes to the state’s election code. One provision of the bill would ban election administrators from sending out mail ballot applications to voters. Another would limit the number of hours a county can use to administer elections. And a third would ban drive-through voting.

Those three sections of the bill stem from voting programs attempted by Harris County during last November’s election aimed at giving voters safer options during the COVID-19 pandemic. The county held drive-through voting, which nearly 127,000 people used. It also held extended voting hours, including one day of 24-hour voting. Nearly 15,000 voters used the extended hours.

But Patrick said those programs go against Texas election law and cast the integrity of elections into question because they lack the same oversight as voting in buildings and during regular voting hours, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Because those programs were not covered by the state’s election code, he said, they are unlawful.

“I have news for Harris County, you’re not the capital of Texas,” Patrick said. “Harris County does not make policy and create law for the other 253 Texas counties.”

“We’re not repealing a law,” he said of drive-through voting. “It was something that Harris County made up on their own.”

Chris Hollins, a Democrat who is the former Harris County clerk that oversaw the programs, said his office consulted with the secretary of state’s office about every program before rolling them out.

“On all of these things we conferred with the secretary of state on them and they said it was fine,” he said.

If the programs they implemented were already illegal, Hollins added, then lawmakers wouldn’t have to spend time during the legislative session rewriting the election code to make those actions illegal.

The Texas Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit to throw out the votes in Harris County cast through drive-through voting. A federal judge did the same. But U.S District Judge Andrew Hanen said if the plaintiffs had standing he would have blocked drive-through voting on Election Day because the tents used for it did not meet the requirements for a polling place under state law.

The Texas Supreme Court did block Harris County’s attempt to send mail ballot applications to all 2.4 million of its registered voters, ruling that the election code did not authorize election administrators to do that.

Senate Bill 7 would codify that into law.

American Airlines

Throughout the news conference, Patrick chastised American Airlines. He said the airline’s government relations staff called his office to notify him that the company would publicly be opposing the bill but told him it “was not personal.” According to Patrick, the airline representative said he had not read the bill.

“Well let me tell you what, Mr. American Airlines, I take it personally,” Patrick said. “You’re questioning my integrity, and the integrity of the governor and the integrity of the 18 Republicans [senators] who voted for this. When you suggest that we’re trying to suppress the vote, you are in essence, between the lines calling us racist, and that will not stand.”

Patrick then ticked off a number of election integrity provisions in the bills and mockingly asked “Mr. American Airlines” if they were OK as he listed them. Those provisions included paper backups for electronic ballots and electronic tracking of mail ballots.

An American Airlines spokesperson said the company reviewed the bill.

Patrick also took a shot at Major League Baseball, which pulled its All-Star Game from Atlanta after the state of Georgia passed its own law tightening voting laws there. He said the MLB was hurting people of color because it pulled the game from Atlanta, which is about 50% Black, and moved it to Denver, which is about 9% Black.

“You think that helped anybody who’s Black or brown?” he said.

Patrick said he did not care about alienating corporations who often donate to politicians through political action committees.

“What I care about is stopping professional sports teams and companies from getting involved in issues they know nothing about,” he said.

But Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP, said the MLB’s removal of the All-Star Game from Georgia was a “bold statement for humanity and restorative justice.”

“Jobs alone don’t drive markets or good corporate citizenry,” he said. “If those seeking freedom for our brothers and sisters in South Africa during apartheid had put so much stock in a job without regard to equality, access to power, and demonstrating conscience in their business behavior and practices, we would still have an apartheid regime in power.”

Patrick also warned companies to stick to lobbying the Legislature on issues that affected their business, like tax issues and business regulations, and raised the specter of boycotts.

“You’ve meddled in a lot of issues lately. I’m not a big believer in boycotts, but people will make up their own mind,” he said.

Race baiting

At the same time, Patrick said opponents were “race baiting” by expressing concern about the bill’s impact on communities of color.

Voting rights advocates say that historically Black voters and other voters of color are most likely to be victims of poll watcher intimidation and fear that the increased leeway for poll watchers could increase that. They also say that expanded voting programs like those provided by Harris County helped voters of color. Fifty-six percent of voters who cast ballots in late-night hours were Black, Hispanic or Asian, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Patrick did not address those issues and said opponents, particularly Democrats, accused Republicans of racism when they did not like a certain piece of legislation.

“When that’s all you can say, you have no argument,” he said.

He said Democrats had raised similar concerns about the push to require photo ID to vote in 2011 and “don’t give a hoot about the Black and brown people they represent.”

Patrick said voter turnout had increased since then, pointing to an increase of 40% from 7.9 million votes cast in the presidential election in 2012 to 11.1 million cast in last year’s presidential election.

But the state’s population also grew by 15% between 2011 and 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And after Democrats had spent much of the last decade growing their electorate and tightening the political divide in the state, both parties increased their voter registration drives and turnout efforts ahead of last year’s election.

Patrick did not say that a federal judge found the voter ID law intentionally discriminatory twice and its full implementation was blocked until the Legislature made changes to the law suggested by the courts.

“Any recent increases in turnout were due to increased organization and voter mobilization activity, but most importantly the addition of the reasonable impediment affidavit alternative so that the voters who did not have one of the limited forms of ID found to be discriminatory were still able to vote,” said Bledsoe of the NAACP, referring to alternatives to the reasonable impediment affidavit that his group and other plaintiffs won in legal battles against the state.

“Increased turnout speaks to population increases and the determination of Black, Hispanic and other voters of color to overcome such suppressive tactics,” Bledsoe added.

Reaction

Democrats and voting rights advocates say Patrick’s comments were disingenuous.

“It’s really rich to have someone say that anyone who says different is lying to you as he lies through his teeth about the impact of this bill,” said Rose Clouston, voter protection director for the Texas Democratic Party.

Clouston said groups like the NAACP and MALDEF, which advocate for Black and Latino voters, had testified in committee hearings that Senate Bill 7 would have a negative impact on communities of color.

The restriction of voting machines at countywide polling places, for example, would make it so that mega voting centers like the one set up at American Airlines Center in Dallas last year would be required to have about an equal amount of machines as other countywide polling places. The net effect of that would be to limit mega voting sites, which thousands of people use.

“We know from years of experience from Jim Crow through now that even if the law doesn’t say that polling places will be closed in Black or Latino neighborhoods, it is not hard to craft laws that will have that impact, and that is exactly what SB 7 does,” Clouston said.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who previously served as a state representative, scoffed at Patrick’s comments.

“Facts will always prevail over personal attacks,” he tweeted. “SB7/HB6 are intended to restrict/suppress people’s right to vote and particularly people of color. I have read both bills. And there is little or no evidence of voter fraud in this state.”