Pretend It Happened

At this point Abbott is just making shit up, because he really doesn't care:  Harris County is going down for going Democratic.

Abbott initially argued that Harris County, where many voting practices are being challenged by the proposed state legislation, simply did not have the authority to "create its own election system."

Except the state courts said they could "create their own election system."  What Abbott fears is other counties will find out out the water's fine, and jump into the pool.

Wallace shot back, asking why Abbott would oppose these measures if they increased voter turnout, as the Texas governor himself has said he is in favor of, noting that no evidence of widespread voter fraud was ever discovered in Harris County.

Abbott then stated that it is hard for counties to ensure proper monitoring of ballots.

"With regard to the drive-thru voting, listen this violates the fundamentals of what — the way that voting integrity has always been achieved and that is the sanctity of the ballot box," the governor said.

"If you do drive-thru voting, are you going to have people in the car with you?" he asked. "It could be somebody from your employer or somebody else they may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot, which is contrary to you going into the ballot box, alone and no one there watching over your shoulder."

The proposed law will allow poll watchers freedom to stand over your shoulder and be sure you vote "correctly."  I'm an old white guy:  they won't be standing over my shoulder.  I'll be invisible to them.  It's the Blacks, browns, and Asians they'll be checking on.  Besides, the real problem is that drive-thru voting is too damned convenient!

Abbott also said bumper stickers that express political beliefs would violate state laws that bar electioneering at polling places because voters might see them when they're in the drive-thru. 

Because when I'm bumper to bumper in a line to vote through my car window, what I'm checking is the bumper stickers on the car ahead of me.

As I say, Abbott doesn't care what his "reasons" sound like.  He just wants the law passed so the mouth-breathers in the GOP primaries will vote for him.  This is the same racist politics as my childhood; the fear of black people (and brown, and Asian) is just not expressed as plainly.  At this point I want Huffines (who says illegals are "getting our money", or West, who says our tax system is "Marxist,") to win the primary, just so we can replay Claytie and the Lady.  For those of you unfamiliar, Clayton Williams was such a boob West Texas rancher even Texas rejected him in favor of the Governor Miz Anne.  We could use that lightning strike one more time around here.