Dan Patrick asks Senate to consider bills to unmask protesters, change runoff elections

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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants the Texas Senate to reexamine how the state conducts runoff elections and recommend new laws aimed at stopping protesters from covering their faces when the Legislature meets next year.

On Tuesday, Patrick — who oversees the Senate and has serious power over what bills it passes — released a second round of directives for Senate committees, building on a list of 57 items from earlier this year that focused on, among other things, housing costs, school vouchers, property tax relief and strengthening the power grid.

The new list includes a number of right-wing priorities, and would escalate Republicans’ wars against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Last year, Texas lawmakers banned such programs at public universities — prompting layoffs and protests at some schools. Now, Patrick wants lawmakers to “examine programs and certificates” at higher education institutions that still have DEI policies, and then “expose” them as “damaging and not aligned with state workforce demands.” He then wants lawmakers to recommend “any needed reforms to ensure universities are appropriately educating students to meet workforce needs.”

Patrick also directed senators to recommend legislation aimed at masked protesters, some of whom he claims have concealed their identities in order to commit crime. Lawmakers in New York and North Carolina have already pursued similar legislation in response to pro-Palestinian protests throughout this year, though such mask bans have been heavily criticized by civil liberties groups and immunocompromised people.

He also asked senators to evaluate impeachment proceedings, and make recommendations to “ensure a fair and transparent process,” in a request released almost exactly one year after the Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of all impeachment charges. Patrick served as the judge for the Senate trial and, after the votes, gave a fiery speech condemning the process and House leaders who allowed it to move forward.

Patrick also directed senators to study the rules and timing for runoff elections, hinting he thinks that he may be concerned too many primary races are being decided in the second round head-to-heads. Runoff elections are currently required if no candidate receives more than 50% of vote in a primary. Patrick wants lawmakers to study that threshold, particularly in races with four or more candidates, and whether it should be lowered “in some instances.”

He also wants lawmakers to recommend legislation to remove noncitizens from voter rolls and prevent them from registering to vote — something that experts say is rare but has fueled a new round of Republican fears ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Texas already has some of the strongest voting laws in the nation, and state and federal laws already prohibit noncitizens from voting. In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott also signed two bills that require citizenship checks of voter rolls, and allow the secretary of state to withhold funds from counties that don’t remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Both of those bills originated in the Texas Senate.

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