Texas GOP blames 'typo' as Democrats force their retreat on controversial voter suppression bill: report

Republican lawmakers in Texas are scrambling as their already-flawed voter suppression bill falls apart at the seams. Some of the features that critics were most concerned about may not end up in the final version at all because of the state Democrats' efforts.

On Friday, June 11, independent journalist Judd Legum took to Twitter with a timeline of the events unfolding in Texas as Democratic lawmakers push back against the controversial bill.

He noted that Republican lawmakers' actions on May 31 assumed they would be passing sweeping legislation to restrict voting practices across the state. However, Democrats took a stand by walking out and denying Republicans a quorum, meaning a final vote on the bill couldn't happen. While the frustrated lawmakers are preparing to revisit the bill during a special session, Legum noted that an "extraordinary" occurrence is underway.

There are a number of discrepancies that are now coming to light. With this particular bill, the devil is in the details, and the Democrats' stunt gave the details time to come out. While some critics said that walk-out merely delayed the inevitable passage fo the bill, Legum argued that the delay is actually resulting in signficiant changes to the legislation.

Apparently, there are a number of "typos" within the bill that Republican lawmakers were attempting to expedite.

"Republicans are COMPLETELY UNPREPARED to defend the substance of the bill and are abandoning major provisions," Legum tweeted. "First, the GOP claimed the ban on Sunday voting before 1PM was a typo This isn't credible because they defended the ban as the bill was debated But [it's] out."

He added, "Now Republicans are scrapping a provision to allow Texas judges to void an election based on thin evidence of fraud (w/o regard to whether the alleged fraud changed the result) A chief House sponsor of the bill now calls the provision 'horrendous!'"

On June 1, state lawmaker Rep. Travis Clardy (R-Texas), who also serves on the state's Elections Committee, spoke with NPR about the typographical errors in the piece of legislation.

"Actually, that's one of the things I look forward to with fixing the most," Clardy said. "That was not intended to be reduced. I think there was a — you know, call it a mistake if you want. What should have been '11' was actually printed up as '1.'"

Legum wrote, "There may not be a special session until the Fall. How many more 'typos' or horrendous provisions will be found before then? When defending the indefensible, time is not on your side."