休斯顿-西尔维娅·安·米勒-斯卡伯勒还记得有色人种在休斯顿投票时必须缴纳人头税。她回忆起她的祖母，她没有被这些障碍吓倒，提醒她在投票箱前被倾听是多么重要。
米勒-斯卡伯勒担心，她在德克萨斯州最大的县半个多世纪的投票中看到的许多来之不易的进展可能会被共和党立法者抹去。她说越来越难让她自己的孙子们相信这很重要。
“他们不相信投票，”她说。“他们都三十多岁了，但是不投票。他们不会和我一起去政治集会。他们说有什么用?在他们看来，一切都没有改变。”
哈里斯县是民主党在一个长期由共和党主导的州的大本营，也是德克萨斯州最多元化的地方之一，几十年来，少数族裔人口一直在增长。民主党人长期以来一直预测该州会向他们倾斜，但这些梦想一再破灭。
尽管如此，当共和党控制的立法机构今年通过了两项措施，以消除哈里斯县的顶端选举并赋予共和党国务卿监督该县选举的权力，政治运作人员明白其中的利害关系。他们也知道，随着11月份休斯顿市长竞选的临近，如果这些变化在法律挑战中幸存下来，将会受到早期的考验。
休斯顿的有色人种选民将如何回应的问题更加复杂。
79岁的米勒-斯卡伯勒住在休斯敦历史上的黑人社区卡什米尔花园。她认为立法机构的行为将会加剧已经存在于那些不记得为投票权而斗争的选民中的犬儒主义。
“我听到我的孙子们已经在说，‘看到了吗，奶奶?“我告诉过你，那对投票没有任何好处，不是吗，”"
休斯顿共和党参议员保罗·贝当古(Paul Bettencourt)是废除选举办公室的法案的作者，他说，这些变化将提高透明度，清理最近在县选举中的失误，包括纸质选票短缺和去年11月一些投票地点推迟开放。20多名共和党人仍在挑战他们去年在休斯顿地区竞选中的失败。
“哈里斯县有太多的问题不容忽视，”贝当古说。
与此同时，他发起的法律被搁置在法庭上。哈里斯县上个月起诉了德克萨斯州，该州的共和党总检察长和国务卿，声称该法律违反了州宪法，该宪法禁止立法机关干预某些地方事务。法律禁止人口超过350万的县设立选举管理办公室，但哈里斯是唯一符合条件的县。
8月14日，一名州法官搁置了此事，但该州的共和党司法部长已经向德克萨斯州最高法院提起上诉。如果法院做出对他有利的裁决，这些法律将于9月1日生效。
在休斯敦周围，很容易找到选民说，不断立法干预哈里斯县选举的政治影响是显而易见的。
丽塔·罗伯斯说，不断变化的规则让像丹佛港这样的地方的人感到困惑，她居住的地方主要是西班牙裔社区。
“这种情况似乎已经持续了一段时间，”53岁的罗伯斯说。“情况好转的唯一途径是他们做出更多选择。”
近年来，共和党立法机构一直在朝着相反的方向前进。它在2021年通过了一项措施，取消了24小时投票站和免下车投票，这两项措施都是在当地发起的，以改善疫情期间的选民准入。
罗伯斯说，对有色人种选民来说，信息很清楚:“他们似乎被压制了。”
休斯敦的所在地哈里斯县有400多万人口和250多万注册选民。在…期间唐纳德·特朗普在2020年总统选举中以不到6个百分点的优势赢得了德克萨斯州，总统乔·拜登以13个百分点的优势赢了哈里斯
就在四年前，共和党人控制了这个县;他们的下降反映了人口趋势的变化。
美国人口普查局(U.S. Census Bureau)的数据显示，2000年至2010年间，德克萨斯州的非西班牙裔白人人口首次低于50%，当时占总人口的45%，并在2020年继续下降至41%。不断变化的人口结构削弱了共和党通常的巨大优势，并使几十年来一直在黑人和拉美裔选民中赢得绝大多数选票的民主党人在德克萨斯州蓬勃发展的郊区更具竞争力。
在休斯顿，人口更早地转变为多数-少数民族地位，新的投票地图也在2021年引起了强烈抗议，此前共和党立法者没有在少数民族居民占多数的地方建立新的国会选区-尽管拉美裔居民正在推动德克萨斯州的快速增长。
这增加了有色人种选民的戒心，这种戒心在德克萨斯州历史上根深蒂固。在至少一个世纪的时间里，两党的白人领袖采用了许多策略来压制少数族裔的投票，从人头税到识字测试。当1964年美国宪法第24修正案宣布人头税不合法时，德克萨斯州是仍然允许人头税的五个州之一，虽然这种税消失了，但德克萨斯州直到2009年才批准这一变化。
这段历史激励了前民主党参议员罗德尼·埃利斯，他发起了参议院废除人头税和消除旧污名的决议。他说过去的问题应该激励冷漠的选民。
“我知道我的祖先不得不数软糖，不得不努力背诵宪法——我有三个学位，包括一个法律学位——我不能这样做，”现在是哈里斯县专员的埃利斯说。"然而，不管怎样，他们必须找到一条路."
休斯敦规划论坛Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood Council的主席基思·唐尼(Keith Downey)说，立法机关的高压策略是为了控制。
“这让选民望而却步，”他说。“这让居民望而却步。居民希望有代表性的税收。他们得到的是税收，没有代表权。”
“你怎么能控制一个你不住的社区，你也从来没去过?”唐尼问道。
致力于增加美国穆斯林政治参与的Emgage Texas的执行董事帕尔瓦沙·沙尔瓦尼(Palwasha Sharwani)说，穆斯林选民在2020年赢得了一场艰苦的胜利，当时当地选举管理办公室增加了用作投票站的伊斯兰中心的数量。
“我不知道我们是否会有同样的观众和同样的理解，因为未来还不确定，”她说。
当休斯顿选民选出新市长时，新法律的第一次考验将很快到来。这些法律将在11月大选前两个月生效——民主党人和地方选举官员担心，这一压缩的时间框架可能会引发问题，引发州政府的干预。上一次德克萨斯州在临近选举时匆忙制定新的投票法是在2022年，当时有23，000张选票被扔掉。
塔纳·普拉迪亚是一名63岁的投票观察员，住在一个以黑人和拉丁裔为主的社区，她对哈里斯县的起诉决定表示赞同。
“闭着的嘴不会被喂饱，”她说。“如果你想做出改变，你必须成为改变者。”
哈里斯县专员埃利斯说，投票应该不受党派政治的影响。
“我希望每个人都来投票，”他说。“我希望你们有权投票反对我，就像我希望人们有权投票支持我一样。我会抓住机会。可以说，我将和选民一起掷骰子。”
Houstonians worry new laws will deter voters who don't recall the hard-won fight for voting rights
HOUSTON --Sylvia Ann Miller-Scarborough remembers when people of color had to pay a poll tax to vote in Houston. She recalls her grandmother, undeterred by such obstacles, reminding her how important it was to be heard at the ballot box.
Miller-Scarborough worries that much of the hard-won progress she’s seen in more than a half-century of voting in the largest county in Texas could be erased by Republican lawmakers. And she says it's gotten harder to convince her own grandchildren that it matters.
“They don’t believe in voting," she said. “They are all in their thirties, but they don’t vote. They won’t go to a political rally with me. They say what’s the use? Nothing has changed, as far as they can see.”
Harris County, a Democratic stronghold in a state long dominated by Republicans, is one of the most diverse places in Texas, where the minority population has been growing for decades. Democrats have long predicted the state would turn in their favor, but those dreams have been dashed repeatedly.
Still, when the Republican-controlled legislature passed two measures this year to eliminate Harris County’s topelectionjob and give the Republican secretary of state power to take oversight of the county’s elections, political operatives understood the stakes. They also knew that with a mayor's race looming in Houston in November, the changes will be tested early if they survive a legal challenge.
The question of how voters of color in Houston will respond is more complicated.
Miller-Scarborough, 79, lives in Kashmere Gardens, a historically Black neighborhood in Houston. She thinks the legislature's actions will fuel cynicism that already exists among voters who don't remember the struggle for the right to vote.
“I hear my grandkids already saying, ‘See that, granny? I told you that didn’t do any good to vote, didn’t I?’”
Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who authored the bill abolishing the elections office, said the changes will improve transparency and clean up recent stumbles in county elections, including paper ballot shortages and delayed openings at some poll locations last November. More than 20 Republicans are still challenging their defeats last year in Houston-area races.
“Harris County had too many issues to ignore,” Bettencourt said.
The law he sponsored, meanwhile, is hung up in court. Harris County last month sued Texas, its Republican attorney general and the secretary of state, claiming the law violated the state Constitution, which bars the legislature from meddling in certain local affairs. The law prohibits counties with a population of 3.5 million or greater from creating an elections administration office, but Harris is the only county that qualifies.
A state judge put things on hold Aug. 14, but the state's Republican attorney general has appealed to the Texas Supreme Court. The laws would take effect Sept. 1 if the court rules in his favor.
Around Houston, it is easy to find voters who say the political implications of constant legislative meddling in Harris County elections are obvious.
Rita Robles said ever-changing rules confuse people in places like Denver Harbor, the mostly Hispanic neighborhood where she lives.
“It seems like it’s been going this way for a while,” said Robles, 53. “The only way it’s going to get any better is if they make more options.”
In recent years, the Republican legislature has been heading in the opposite direction. It passed a measure in 2021 stripping 24-hour polling places and drive-thru voting, both initiated locally to improve voter access during the pandemic.
To voters of color, Robles said, the message is clear: “It just seems that they’re being silenced.”
Harris County, home to Houston, has more than 4 million people and over 2.5 million registered voters. WhileDonald Trumpwon Texas by under 6 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election, PresidentJoe Bidenwon Harris by a 13-point margin
Just four years earlier, Republicans controlled the county; their slipping grip reflects the shifting population trends.
The non-Hispanic white population of Texas fell below 50% for the first time between 2000 and 2010, when it made up 45% of the total, and continued to decline through 2020 to 41%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The changing demographics have cut into Republicans’ typically wide margins of victory and made Democrats, who have consistently won substantial majorities among both Black and Latino voters for decades, more competitive in Texas’ booming suburbs.
In Houston, where the population shift to majority-minority status happened earlier, new voting maps also drew an outcry in 2021 after Republicans lawmakers created no new congressional districts where minority residents hold a majority -- even though Hispanic residents are driving Texas’ surging growth.
That adds to a wariness among voters of color that's deeply rooted in Texas history. White leaders of both parties employed numerous tactics to suppress the minority vote, from the poll tax to literacy tests, for at least a century. Texas was one of five states that still allowed poll taxes when they were outlawed by the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1964, and while the tax went away, Texas didn’t ratify the change until 2009.
That history motivates former Democratic Senator Rodney Ellis, who sponsored the Senate resolution to abolish the poll tax and remove the old stigma. He said the problems of the past should inspire apathetic voters.
“Knowing that my ancestors had to count jellybeans, had to try and recite the Constitution by memory — I’ve got three degrees, including a law degree — I can’t do that,” said Ellis, now a Harris County commissioner. “Yet somehow, they had to make a way.”
Keith Downey, president of the Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood Council, a planning forum in Houston, said the legislature's heavy-handed tactics are about control.
“It discourages the voter," he said. “It discourages a resident. The resident wants to have taxation with representation. What they’re getting is taxation and no representation.”
“How can you control a community you don’t live in, and you never visited?" Downey asked.
Palwasha Sharwani, executive director of Emgage Texas, a group that works to increase political engagement by American Muslims, Muslim voters won a hard-fought victory in 2020 when the local election administration office increased the number of Islamic Centers to be used as polling places.
"I don’t know if we will have the same kind of audience and the same kind of understanding because the future is in the air,” she said.
The first test of the new laws will come quickly, when Houston voters elect a new mayor. The laws take effect two months before the November election — a compressed time frame that Democrats and local election officials fear could cause problems that would trigger intervention by the state. The last time Texas rushed to enact a new voting law close to an election, in 2022, 23,000 ballots were thrown out.
Tana Pradia, a 63-year-old poll watcher in a mostly Black and Latino neighborhood, applauded Harris County's decision to sue.
“Closed mouths don’t get fed,” she said. “If you want to make a change, you have to be the change."
Ellis, the Harris County commissioner, said voting should be free of partisan politics.
“I want everybody to vote," he said. "I want you to have the right to vote against me just as much as I want people to have the right to vote for me. And I’ll take my chances. I’ll roll the dice, so to speak, with the voters."
