Early voting in Texas begins on Monday, and if the trend seen in other states continues into Texas, then we will see record-breaking numbers of voters who can't wait to cast their ballots.
Even in the best-run elections there are glitches, and things go wrong. And in the worst-run elections, there are bad-faith actors who violate voting rights.
The Texas Civil Rights Project is looking to hear from the public when things go wrong. They have set up an election protection hotline: 866-OUR VOTE.
Veronikah Warms is a staff attorney for the voting rights program at the Texas Civil Right Project.
Birth Control on the ballot
In this election season there’s been a lot of talk about abortion access and also IVF as part of reproductive freedom. But the issue of access to birth control hasn’t gotten the spotlight that it deserves because birth control is also on the ballot.
This is odd, because so many people depend on birth control in their daily lives. Losing access to that would be catastrophic and difficult to imagine.
In June Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would enshrine a federal right to access contraception.
The vote on the Right to Contraception Act was 51-39, falling short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a Republican filibuster and move the bill forward.
Republicans said they opposed the bill because it’s unnecessary and the use of birth control is already protected under Supreme Court precedent.
But one look at what happened to Roe v. Wade should remind anyone not to count on a Supreme Court precedent meaning much with the current conservative, black-robed justices.
Furthermore, in states like Texas where there is an absolute ban in place, having access to birth control is all the more necessary. And since the fall of Roe, states like Texas have taken steps to impose new restrictions on access to birth control.
I spoke with Dr. Cynthia Harper about what has happened with contraceptive access since the Dobbs decision ended the right to abortion in the United States.
