德克萨斯州奥斯汀——周三，德克萨斯州众议院官员对50多名缺席的民主党人发出了民事逮捕令，沮丧的共和党人加紧努力，结束了一场大范围的僵局选举该法案已持续到第31天。
但是，在武装军士在德克萨斯州国会大厦内巡视完毕后——在民主党人的办公室放下逮捕令副本，并礼貌地要求工作人员告诉他们的老板请回来——几乎没有迹象表明，7月份民主党人为了让州议会陷入僵局而逃到华盛顿特区时开始的僵局更接近解决。
最新的升级使德克萨斯州立法机构陷入了不寻常的境地，双方都不确定接下来会发生什么，也不确定共和党人能在多大程度上下定决心确保100名现任议员的法定人数——他们只差4名议员就能达到这个门槛。
“我不担心我无法控制的事情，”州众议员艾琳·兹维纳(Erin Zwiener)说，她是获得逮捕令的民主党人之一，拒绝返回国会大厦。“这些认股权证没有什么令人惊讶的，它们也不一定会影响我的计划。”
民主党人承认，他们无法永久阻止共和党投票法案在德克萨斯州通过，他们以新的反抗方式回应了逮捕令。其中一人出现在休斯顿的法庭上，并获得了旨在防止他被迫返回国会大厦的法庭命令。在得克萨斯州参议院，民主党人卡罗尔·阿尔瓦拉多宣布，她将尝试以阻挠议事的方式无限期地就投票法案发表讲话，以此来推迟该法案的通过，尽管这不太可能阻止该法案的通过。
拒绝出席立法会议违反了众议院规则——这是民事犯罪，而不是刑事犯罪，这使得逮捕令携带的让民主党人重返众议院的权力不明确，即使是对援引它的共和党人来说。民主党人不会被监禁。共和党人特拉维斯·克拉迪(Travis Clardy)帮助协商了投票法案的早期版本，民主党人在5月份的一次罢工中首次阻止了该法案，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，他相信“他们可以被带回国会大厦。”
德克萨斯州众议院共和党党团领袖、州众议员吉姆·墨菲(Jim Murphy)表示，虽然他在任期内没有看到这样的情况发生，但他的理解是，官员们可以去找失踪的议员，要求他们回来。
“我希望他们会来，因为逮捕令已经发出，他们不想被逮捕，”墨菲说。“对我来说，你不得不逮捕一些人来完成他们竞选时所做的工作，这是不可思议的，他们为此宣誓就职，维护德克萨斯州宪法。”
德克萨斯州公共安全部，该州的执法机构，将有关逮捕令的问题提交给了众议院议长。
此举标志着共和党为结束选举立法引发的抗议做出了新的努力。一个月前，50名民主党人乘坐私人飞机前往华盛顿，戏剧性地表明了他们的决心，即让德克萨斯州成为新一轮全国投票权斗争的前线。
共和党人现在正处于自5月以来的第三次尝试中，试图通过对该州选举法规的大量调整和修改，这将使在德克萨斯州投票变得更加困难，甚至有时在法律上更加危险，因为该州已经有了一些全国最严格的选举法。
德克萨斯州是共和党人匆忙颁布新投票限制的几个州之一，以回应前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)关于2020年大选被盗的虚假说法。目前的法案类似于民主党上个月通过去华盛顿阻止的法案。它将禁止24小时投票地点、免下车投票，并给予党派投票观察员更多的访问权。
目前尚不清楚周三仍有多少民主党人留在华盛顿，他们曾希望推动总统乔·拜登和其他民主党人在那里通过联邦立法，保护德克萨斯州及其他地区的投票权。参议院民主党人承诺，当他们在秋季返回时，将把它作为首要任务，尽管他们没有一个明确的战略来克服坚定的共和党反对意见。
Warrants served to Texas Democrats, but holdout continues
AUSTIN, Texas -- Officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants for more than 50 absent Democrats on Wednesday as frustrated Republicans ratcheted up efforts to end a standoff over a sweepingelections bill that stretched into its 31st day.
But after sergeants-at-arms finished making the rounds inside the Texas Capitol — dropping off copies of the warrants at Democrats' offices, and politely asking staff to tell their bosses to please return — there were few signs the stalemate that began when Democrats fled to Washington, D.C., in July in order to grind the statehouse to a halt was any closer to a resolution.
The latest escalation threw the Texas Legislature into uncommon territory with neither side showing any certainty over what comes next, or how far Republicans could take their determination to secure a quorum of 100 present lawmakers — a threshold they were just four members shy of reaching.
“I don’t worry about things I can’t control,” said state Rep. Erin Zwiener, one of the Democrats who was served with a warrant and has refused to return to the Capitol. “Nothing about these warrants are a surprise, and they don’t necessarily affect my plans.”
Democrats, who acknowledge they cannot permanently stop the GOP voting bill from passing in Texas, responded to the warrants with new shows of defiance. One turned up in a Houston courtroom and secured a court order aimed at preventing him from being forced to return to the Capitol. In the Texas Senate, Democrat Carol Alvarado announced she would try delaying passage of the voting bill in her chamber by speaking on it indefinitely in the form of a filibuster, although that is unlikely to stop it from passing.
Refusing to attend legislative sessions is a violation of House rules — a civil offense, not a criminal one, leaving the power the warrants carry to get Democrats back to the chamber unclear, even for the Republicans who invoked it. Democrats would not be jailed. Republican Travis Clardy, who helped negotiate an early version of the voting bill that Democrats first stopped with a walkout in May, told ABC News he believed “they can be physically brought back to the Capitol."
State Rep. Jim Murphy, who leads the Texas House Republican Caucus, said while he has not seen a situation like this play out during his tenure, his understanding is that officers could go to the missing lawmakers and ask them to come back.
“I am hoping they will come because the warrants have been issued and they don’t want to be arrested,” Murphy said. “It is incredible to me that you have to arrest people to do the job they campaigned for, for which they took an oath of office to uphold the Texas Constitution.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety, the state's law enforcement agency, referred questions about the warrants to the House speaker.
The move marks a new effort by the GOP to end the protest over elections legislation that began a month ago with 50 Democrats taking private jets to Washington in a dramatic show of resolve to make Texas the front lines of a new national battle over voting rights.
Republicans are now in the midst of their third attempt since May to pass a raft of tweaks and changes to the state’s election code that would make it harder — and even, sometimes, legally riskier — to cast a ballot in Texas, which already has some of the most restrictive election laws in the nation.
Texas is among several states where Republicans have rushed to enact new voting restrictions in response to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The current bill is similar to the ones Democrats blocked last month by going to Washington. It would ban 24-hour polling locations, drive-thru voting and give partisan poll watchers more access, among other things.
It was unclear Wednesday how many Democrats remained in Washington, where they had hoped to push President Joe Biden and other Democrats there to pass federal legislation that would protect voting rights in Texas and beyond. Senate Democrats pledged to make it the first order of business when they return in the fall, even though they don’t have a clear strategy for overcoming steadfast Republican opposition.
