(WASHINGTON) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said a government shutdown would come “at exactly the wrong moment” as the department works to address the ongoing air traffic controller shortage.
While the Department of Transportation met its hiring goals this year for air traffic controllers, Buttigieg noted if a government shutdown occurs at the end of the month, it would “stop us in our tracks” as the Federal Aviation Administration works to train new controllers.
If a government shutdown occurs, controllers currently working in towers would stay on the job, but training of new controllers at the FAA facility in Oklahoma would pause.
“We now have 2,600 air traffic controllers in training. A government shutdown would stop that training. Even a shutdown lasting a few weeks could set us back by months or more because of how complex that training is,” Buttigieg said during a hearing in front of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday. “We cannot afford that kind of politically driven disruption at the very moment when we finally have those air traffic control workforce numbers headed in the right direction.”
The aviation industry is still attempting to address the marked increase in air travel as it rebounds from the lows of the pandemic.
Last week, the FAA announced it would extend a waiver that allows airlines to fly fewer and larger planes to New York City airports because the number of certified controllers in the area is “not sufficient” to handle normal traffic levels.
“The industry is ramping back up from the pandemic, during which a number of people … were either retired or were laid off layoff,” National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said earlier this year. “A new workforce is coming in that needs to be appropriately, adequately trained. Some who were out during the pandemic also need to be retrained.”
The United States currently employs 1,200 fewer fully certified controllers than 10 years ago, despite more planes and passengers in the skies, according to the National Air Traffic Controller Association.
Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to pass spending bills or else risk a government shutdown. Leaders in both parties are signaling an increased willingness to punt the deadline to fund the government to later this year by passing a stop-gap funding bill to keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 deadline.
ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday will launch the “American Climate Corps,” according to the White House, which described it as “a workforce training and service initiative” for more than 20,000 Americans “that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training necessary for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy.”
Biden had endorsed a similar idea of a “Civilian Climate Corps” while running for president in the 2020 election. But the initiative was ultimately left out of the pared down version of Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill that became the Inflation Reduction Act.
Dozens of climate activists and Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly called on Biden to create a federally funded jobs program that would carry out climate and conservation projects. They have implored him to use his executive powers as president to establish the initiative on his own, which is what he’s doing now.
Wednesday’s announcement comes amid the annual Climate Week that coincides with the yearly United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
While Biden spoke about the importance of tackling climate change in his address to the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, he notably will not attend a gathering on Wednesday hosted by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres that will reportedly focus on new action countries are taking to fight climate change. U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will attend in Biden’s stead.
“The American Climate Corps, just in its first year of recruitment, will put to work a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans doing the important tasks of conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy — in many cases, distributed and community based — implementing energy efficiency technologies that will cut consumer costs for the American people, and advancing environmental justice so long overdue in so many places,” Biden’s national climate adviser, Ali Zaidi, told reporters during a telephone call on Monday.
A major part of the initiative, according to Zaidi, will be teaming up with apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs across the country and pushing more Americans from diverse backgrounds into these programs — ultimately resulting in well-paying jobs for them, thanks to funding from Biden’s climate legislation.
Americans will be able to sign up online for the American Climate Corps, which the White House said will train young people in clean energy, conservation and climate resilience related skills. There will be a focus on climate justice, too, with an emphasis on helping underserved communities, according to the White House.
The Biden administration will coordinate recruitment for the American Climate Corps across the federal government and streamline pathways from the initiative and related programs into employment in the broader federal civil service, the White House said.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday in a high-stakes hearing where Republican lawmakers are expected to lambast him over his department’s handling of criminal probes into former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and other high-profile investigations.
But according to remarks released by the Justice Department from Garland’s opening statement, he plans to take their criticism of his tenure head-on — arguing their efforts to target career officials is “dangerous” at a time when threats against public servants are on the rise.
“We will not be intimidated,” Garland is expected to say in his opening statement. “We will do our jobs free from outside interference. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.”
The appearance will be Garland’s first time sitting before lawmakers since special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for both his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House as well as his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
And it comes nearly a week after another Garland-appointed special counsel, David Weiss, indicted Hunter Biden on felony gun charges after a plea deal between Weiss and Hunter Biden’s lawyers fell apart in court in July.
A third special counsel appointed by Garland, Robert Hur, continues to examine circumstances surrounding documents with classified markings that were found in President Biden’s home in Delaware as well as a post-vice presidency think tank in Washington.
Garland is expected to push back against Republicans’ claims that the Justice Department is seeking to tilt political scales in Democrats’ favor leading up to the 2024 election — and vehemently deny he has taken any directives from President Biden or the White House with respect to any criminal investigation.
“Our job is not to take orders from the President, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” Garland will say. “As the President himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the President’s lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. Hunter Biden has not yet entered a plea as part of his case, though his attorneys have said they will fight the charges brought last week. President Biden has denied wrongdoing in his handling of classified materials and vowed to fully cooperate with special counsel Hur’s investigation.
Garland has argued his appointments of all three special counsels represents a commitment to ensure the integrity and independence of each of their investigations, and will likely repeat that assertion in fielding questions from Republicans who have sought to portray them as evidence of politicization by the Justice Department.
“Our job is to pursue justice, without fear or favor,” Garland will say. “Our job is not to do what is politically convenient.”
Several Republicans on the committee, including chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have previously threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Garland over the department’s handling of the criminal probe into Hunter Biden.
Jordan has cited testimony before Congress from IRS whistleblowers who have claimed the president’s son received preferential treatment from investigators, and that Garland’s past testimony before Congress claiming Weiss was given ultimate authority to make charging decisions was inaccurate.
Both Garland and Weiss, in letters to Congress, have disputed the whistleblower’s claims.
Republicans have also accused special counsel Smith of bias in his handling of investigations into former President Trump, and earlier this month launched an inquiry into “alleged prosecutorial abuses” by one of the top officials leading the classified documents investigation, Jay Bratt.
Both Garland and Smith haven’t directly responded to the allegations about Bratt, though in remarks both have maintained the officials working on the investigations have acted with professionalism.
Garland is also likely to be pressed about a filing from Smith’s attorneys made public last week which revealed they are urging a federal judge in Washington to implement a limited gag order that would seek to prevent Trump from making public comments they argue “present a serious and substantial danger of prejudicing” his 2020 federal election interference case.
The proposed request to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan would restrict Trump from attacking witnesses in the Jan. 6 case as well as prosecutors and court officials — with Smith’s legal team citing a wave of threats that have been directed towards various individuals, including Smith himself, that Trump has singled out on his social media platform.
Trump and his allies have argued the proposal would violate his free speech rights to respond to the charges leveled against him, though the order proposed by Smith would not prohibit Trump from continuing to publicly proclaim his innocence or to cite public filings from either of the cases.
In previous hearings, Garland has sought to avoid answering questions about specific actions taken by special counsels — which he argues affirms their independence from the department. It’s a trend that is likely to continue in Wednesday’s hearing as he will be pressed over specific actions of officials in still-ongoing criminal investigations.
(ATLANTA) — The judge overseeing the Fulton County election interference case will allow attorneys for two of Donald Trump’s codefendants to interview the grand jurors who returned the indictment, according to a new order on Tuesday, after the attorneys raised concerns that it was not “properly returned.”
Judge Scott McAfee ruled that the attorneys for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell — who are headed to trial next month — can speak with grand jurors but said the court would “guide and maintain oversight” of the process to ensure that “privileged matters remain protected.”
Each interview must be voluntary and be conducted in the presence of the court, the order said.
McAfee, in his ruling, highlighted the secrecy rules that surround the grand jury deliberations but said that when it comes to the grand jurors themselves, “the court has not found nor been provided with any authority that suggests defense counsel are totally forbidden from contact.”
“Defense counsel here are entitled, and would be expected, to conduct a thorough investigation in the zealous representation of their clients,” the order said.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office had opposed the request, claiming the defense was seeking to “perform an illegal investigation.”
The court instructed the defense attorneys to file a list of proposed questions for the grand juror interviews within the next three days and ordered the state to file any objections to the questions three days later.
Afterward, the court will then provide the approved questions list, and the state must provide contact information for each grand juror, the order said.
From there, the order says, the court will reach out to jurors to see if they would submit to a remote or in-person interview, which will be conducted in the presence of the court.
“Should defense counsel believe sufficient grounds and the requisite prejudice exist to dismiss the indictment after the conclusion of the final grand juror interview, Defendants will be permitted an extension from the regular deadline to file additional particularized motions,” the order said.
Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment in August for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty.
(WASHINGTON) — The GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee on Tuesday announced it would hold a public hearing on President Joe Biden’s family’s business dealings next Thursday Sept. 28, the first since the House launched its impeachment inquiry, sources told ABC News.
“We’re going to have three credible witnesses,” chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told ABC News. “We want to be able to explain what exactly an impeachment inquiry is, and what the purpose is.”
The other witnesses will be financial law experts and foreign agent registration — to talk about the alleged “evidence” Republicans believe they have gathered about the Biden family’s business dealings.
“The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the evidence and money trail to provide the transparency and accountability that Americans demand from their government,” a committee statement said.
Comer also said that Republicans would subpoena bank records for Hunter Biden and James Biden — the president’s son and brother — as soon as this week.
“As soon as all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed with respect to the paperwork for the impeachment inquiry, then you will see the subpoenas go out the door,” he said.
Asked why the committees have not yet subpoenaed the president’s records, Comer said it’s because investigators have not uncovered evidence that he received any of the scrutinized funds.
“We’ll follow the money … whether it be China, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, it went from there through a shell company — or two or three — and then it was dispersed to nine different Biden family members,” he said.
“At this point, he has not been one of the nine Biden family members,” he added.
The White House is adamant that the president did nothing wrong, and that there is no evidence to suggest otherwise after an investigation into any relationship between him and Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
White House spokesperson Ian Sams slammed the timing of the hearing just two days before the government could shut down if no funding deal is reached.
“Extreme House Republicans are already telegraphing their plans to try to distract from their own chaotic inability to govern and the impacts of it on the country,” Sams said.
“Staging a political stunt hearing in the waning days before they may shut down the government reveals their true priorities: to them, baseless personal attacks on President Biden are more important than preventing a government shutdown and the pain it would inflict on American families,” he wrote in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — Ray Epps, a former Oath Keeper member who became the target of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories spread by many Republicans, has been charged in connection with the attacks at the U.S. Capitol.
The Justice Department charged Epps on Monday with a single misdemeanor count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted area via a criminal information, which is often an indication a defendant is prepared to plead guilty.
Epps’ attorney, Edward Ungvarsky, told ABC News he anticipates a guilty plea to the charge.
Epps said he went to D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, to protest the 2020 election. Republicans accused him of being an undercover federal agent that urged supporters of former President Donald Trump to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Epps had long denied being an informant or federal agent, including in testimony before the Jan. 6 House select committee. Epps, who worked as a roofer after he served as infantry in the U.S. Marine Corps, told the House investigators that he never worked for the FBI.
He has since filed a defamation suit against Fox News and former host Tucker Carlson for repeated segments spreading the conspiracy theory he was acting undercover, which he has said resulted in threats and harassment that upended his life.
Carlson featured Epps in more than two dozen segments, according to his lawsuit. As a result of these prime-time reports and Fox’s alleged defamatory statements, Epps received threats from Trump supports, according to the lawsuit. Additionally, Epps and his wife had to move from their Arizona ranch and now face financial turmoil, the lawsuit says.
Epps noted in his lawsuit that he wanted a peaceful demonstration on Jan. 6 and was “shocked and disappointed” at how the events of the day unfolded.
“He had concerns about the election and believed it was his duty as a citizen to participate in the protest. But he did not believe violence was appropriate,” the lawsuit claims.
The Justice Department did not have any additional comments on Epps’ charges Monday.
(WASHINGTON) — In a new interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on ABC News Live Prime, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy discussed his views on climate change, race and racism in America and why he would not consider being former President Donald Trump running mate if Trump beats him for their party’s 2024 nomination.
An entrepreneur and commentator before launching his White House bid, Ramaswamy has seen his poll numbers rise this year — though he still trails far behind Trump, the front-runner — and has raised his profile in part through provocative and controversial comments, including calling for changing the U.S. Constitution to raise the voting age.
“My goal is to speak the truth,” he told Davis.
On climate change
Ramaswamy, who has called himself an environmentalist while also being a staunch proponent of fracking and using fossil fuels in addition to carbon-free energy like nuclear, explained his position on climate change and policies to address rising global temperatures, telling Davis in the interview on Monday night that he believes the “climate change agenda” is a “hoax … more about pushing global equity” and deferring to China.
“I think that with due respect … ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ is not really a meaningful question because climate change has existed as long as the Earth has existed,” he said. “Do I believe it is a fact that global surface temperatures are rising over the course of the last century of the last half century? Yes, I think that that is an established fact.”
But, as president, he would not take action to address the warming of the planet, he said.
“The thing I’m going to do is actually drive human adaptation and mastery of changes in the climate through technological advances. I think that requires more, not less, use of fossil fuels more not less use of nuclear energy,” he said.
He also argued that cold temperatures kill more people than warm temperatures.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “more than 19,000 Americans have died from cold-related causes since 1979, according to death certificates,” compared with “more than 11,000 Americans [who] have died from heat-related causes” in that same period.
However, research has also suggested that both excessive heat and freezing cold are closely tied to heart attacks.
More broadly, a report earlier this year found that man-made climate change — driven by the use of fossil fuels — was the main driver of dangerous heat waves in Europe and North America.
Doctors recommend taking excessive heat warnings seriously. There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
But Ramaswamy told Davis: “The right answer to all temperature-related deaths is more plentiful and abundant access to fossil fuels.”
White supremacy not a ‘top 50 problem’ in US
Elsewhere in the interview, Davis raised a moment from the campaign trail when Ramaswamy questioned the existence of white supremacy in the United States at a stop in Iowa in August — supposing that he may meet a unicorn sooner than a white supremacist.
“Are you really trying to say that white supremacists don’t exist?” Davis asked.
“Of course racism exists, but I do not think it is a top 50 problem in the United States of America. There was a point in our national history where we demanded a comprehensive response to racial inequality in this country. But, Linsey, that moment has now long past,” Ramaswamy said.
He was pressed by Davis in light of past mass shootings by “self-identified white supremacists,” such as the gunman who attacked a predominantly Black church in South Carolina in 2015.
“I want to end all of this violence. But the part of the problem is we’re fostering more animus,” Ramaswamy said.
He has been vocal about what he contends is a counteractive focus on race, including through affirmative action and race-conscious policies that seek to address longstanding disparities in areas like university admissions.
“I think the right way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race, to borrow from [Supreme Court Chief Justice] John Roberts. That has to be the path forward. I share the view of reviving colorblind meritocracy.”
Ramaswamy said in Iowa in August that Juneteenth, which marks the emancipation of slaves in the U.S., is a “useless holiday” federalized “under political duress.” Weeks earlier, he posted a video saying “Happy Juneteenth” and “we ought to celebrate how far we’ve come as a country.”
“I’m just curious how you get to have it both ways,” Davis said.
“Well, look, I believe in finding the positives wherever they exist,” Ramaswamy said, adding: “I’d like to redefine and reorient it towards actually standing for American ideals that we aspire to.”
Not interested in being VP
“I think that the right role for me to play is be the next president of the United States of America. That’s the only way I’m going to be able to unite this country,” Ramaswamy said when asked if he would hypothetically be Trump’s vice presidential pick — an option Trump has suggested he would consider.
“I’ve said it in multiple forums that I would not take that job,” Ramaswamy told Davis.
“I’ll take him as my mentor, an adviser,” he said.
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday — which is National Voter Registration Day — that the state will now automatically register residents to vote while getting their driver’s license or state I.D.
“I made a commitment when I was campaigning for this office that we would bring automatic voter registration to Pennsylvania and break down the barriers for legal eligible voters,” Shapiro said in a video posted on social media.
“This is a key step to make our elections more secure,” he said.
Automatic voter registration (AVR) is the process by which people are automatically registered to vote as they enter their personal information into other government agencies, such as a Department of Motor Vehicles. Residents have the choice to opt out of being registered.
A Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson told ABC News that people who are not eligible to vote will not be presented with the voter registration screen during any of the DMV processes.
Jessie Allen, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, told ABC News that voter registration could help enroll people who would otherwise forget to register to vote. People who would have instead scrambled to register close to Election Day will not have to worry about their status, she said.
“If you have to take an affirmative step to do it, then you might wind up being closed out of an opportunity that you’re otherwise eligible for; you just haven’t checked the box. This way, if you’re automatically registered, because you have a driver’s license, and you realize two weeks before an election, you want to vote; you’ll be able to vote,” Allen said.
It also could help with voting record accuracy, Allen said.
“Voter records are already often linked with motor vehicles, because they want people to be accurate. So this way, for example, if somebody changes, addresses, or gets married and changes their name, and goes and gets a new driver’s license, it would automatically update the voting record, and make it more accurate.”
But some criticized the move, arguing there could be downsides to expanding the pool of voters.
“Making it easier for uninterested, uninformed people to wield political power will inevitably lead to terrible political choices. It expands the pool of citizens to conscript into jury duty, and gives more votes to harvest,” the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania said.
Previously, 24 states (including the District of Columbia) had implemented AVR, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
And with Pennsylvania being a battleground state, AVR could be a major factor for Pennsylvania voters heading into the 2024 election.
“Part of the reason why this is somewhat of a big story is that Pennsylvania was also one of the states that was being pretty heavily challenged in terms of voting in the 2020 presidential election,” William Rosenberg, a political science professor at Drexel University, told ABC News.
Although Pennsylvania flipped blue in 2020 without AVR, Rosenberg says that AVR could still be seen as a disadvantage to Republicans, because “when it becomes easier and easier to vote, it’s to the disadvantage of Republican candidate, because that means that there’s likely to be more turnout, particularly among Democrats that might be somewhat disadvantaged by the prior restrictions that are in place.”
Pennsylvania’s governor framed AVR as being important for the state’s future.
“Now more than ever, we need an engaged citizenry to move our country and our commonwealth forward,” Shapiro said in the video posted to social media.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday rolled out what it is calling a comprehensive guide to combatting illicit opioids from coming into the country.
The report, titled “Strategy for Combatting Illicit Opioids,” outlines four goals the Department hopes will stop opioids from coming into the country.
“Our nation continues to face an unprecedented epidemic of deaths from illicit synthetic opioids — our citizens are dying every year at an unimaginable rate,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Executive Associate Director Katrina W. Berger in a press release. “This is a bold and innovative strategy to stem the flow of dangerous narcotics and directly addresses the public health emergency this opioid crisis has become.
HSI is the primary investigative arm of the Department.
Primary elements of the strategy include: Reducing the international supply of illicit opioids, reducing the supply of opioids in the United States, attacking the enablers of the drug trafficking organizations and working with the private sector to better stop drugs from getting into the United States.
HSI hopes to specifically work with international partners to curb drugs being brought into the United States, according to the report. Due to HSI’s robust international presence, they can do that.
Domestically, they will increase the number of HSI task forces designed to target drug traffickers.
“In Fiscal Year 2022, HSI narcotics enforcement efforts resulted in 11,612 arrests as well as the seizure of 28,689 lbs. of opioids – including 20,981 lbs. of fentanyl – and over $210 million in illicit proceeds,” the report reads.
DHS says they will also target the cash that Mexican cartels use to fund the drug smuggling operations. They will also use cyber forensics to better target drug traffickers who cross the border and have a presence online.
All told, DHS says this strategy will help reduce drugs along the border and in the United States.
“For more than five years now, fentanyl has been causing so much loss of life and destruction in our communities,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “We in the Department of Homeland Security, along with our federal, state, and local partners, are committed to combatting this scourge and protecting American communities from it. The new HSI Strategy for Combating Illicit Opioids that we are announcing today will help further align our intelligence and field operations to keep fentanyl off the streets and bring ruthless cartels and criminal organizations to justice.”
(HOUSTON) — A federal trial is unfolding over whether a 2021 voting rights law in the state violates the U.S. Constitution.
The suit — brought on behalf of La Union del Pueblo, or LUPE, and other groups — argues that certain provisions of Texas Senate Bill 1 have made voting more difficult, especially for less-educated, non-English-speaking and disabled populations in need of voting assistance.
The trial began on Sept. 11 and is expected to continue for the next few weeks.
S.B. 1 further empowers partisan poll watchers and further enhances ID requirements for voting by mail. It also bans balloting methods that places like Harris County, the third most populous county in the U.S. and the largest in Texas, implemented in response to COVID-19, such as drive-through and 24-hour voting.
Harris County, home to Houston, has increasingly voted Democratic in the last decade — at the same time that Texas, while still often voting Republican, has shifted to be less conservative in federal elections.
Additionally, S.B. 1 prevents election officials from promoting vote by mail or distributing unsolicited absentee ballots.
Mail voting has been criticized by some conservatives, like former President Donald Trump, even as it has become more common since the pandemic. Trump and others claim, without evidence, that it’s more vulnerable to widespread fraud.
The new suit challenges these and other provisions. In their complaint, LUPE claims S.B. 1 violates the U.S. Constitution’s first, 14th and 15th amendments as well as the Voting Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act.
Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican, authored the bill, characterizing it as an effort to “protect election integrity” and “prevent fraud.”
In an August 2021 post to the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s website, Hughes wrote, “I’m proud to have helped lead the effort to restore confidence in our election system. And that’s what SB 1 is about, really—it’s not an attempt to overturn any prior election, or to ensure any one party has a permanent majority.”
Hughes wrote that the new identification requirements were the “biggest change in voting in Texas” under the bill. He characterized that specific provision as “the addition of a simple step to help ensure that mail-in ballots are genuine.”
But lawyers for the plaintiffs, like Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), believe S.B.1 really accomplishes something else.
“It instead restricts the ability to vote in Texas,” Perales said.
Sean Morales-Doyle, an attorney for The Brennan Center, which is representing LUPE, told ABC News that negative repercussions from the bill are already being seen and were apparent in the 2022 local elections, when “tens of thousands of ballots being rejected from eligible voters.”
According to Perales, mail-in ballots ask for one of two identifying options, either a driver’s license number or Social Security number, leaving many voters guessing which their voter registration is linked to.
Nadia Hakim, director of communications for Harris County’s Elections Administration’s Office, gave an example as to why those ballots are being rejected, telling ABC News, “So let’s say, you have someone who is 70 years old. They’re submitting their annual mail ballot application, they send in the last four digits of their Social Security number, but what we have on file is their Texas driver’s license number. Those numbers both may be true, but it’s not an exact match. So we would have to flag that application for rejection.”
“The first major election where we saw the impact of Senate Bill 1, was the March 1, 2022 primaries, and unfortunately our office had to flag, I believe, it was almost 20% of mail ballots that came in. So those are mail ballots that weren’t counted because they had to be flagged for rejection,” Hakim said.
With the first presidential election since the bill’s adoption swiftly approaching, next year, LUPE contends the full restrictive effects of the bill have yet to be seen.
“It [S.B. 1] may have an even greater impact or a different impact on a presidential year when more voters are turning out to vote, and voters who didn’t vote in 2022 are likely to be voting, so people who haven’t already been through this rigmarole of putting their license number down and having it rejected are going to be going through that for the first time in 2024,” Morales-Doyle said.
According to FiveThirtyEight data, the United States saw an unparalleled year of voting restrictions in 2021 spurred by Republicans’ false belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. That trend hasn’t carried through to 2023, with legislation that instead made it easier for Americans to vote.
“The hope is that this trial will have a big impact, because we’ll get a court ruling enjoining the enforcement of a number of provisions of S.B. 1,” Morales-Doyle said.
Their case has been consolidated with a number of others that have their own plaintiffs and counsel.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed S.B. 1, did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
