AUSTIN — New voting restrictions in Texas moved a step closer to becoming law this weekend after two committees advanced the legislation in a special session, setting up a floor vote in the coming days on a GOP proposal that civil rights leaders say would hurt communities of color.

It was the second effort by Texas Republicans to pass such voting restrictions, after Democrats foiled a first attempt by staging a dramatic walkout in May, denying the Republican-majority legislature a quorum and forcing them to adjourn without voting on the measure. After the walkout, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vowed that he would call a special session later in the year and include the voting legislation.

State GOP lawmakers filed two new bills last week — one in the House and one in the Senate — and debated them in hearings on Saturday. The two bills contain similar provisions, including banning 24-hour voting and ending drive-through voting, both of which were used in the state in the 2020 election to help people vote during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday afternoon, Texas senators voted along party lines, 6-3, to advance Senate Bill 1 out of committee. It’s expected to reach the floor for a full chamber vote Tuesday. Early Sunday morning, House committee members voted 9-5 along party lines to advance House Bill 3 after a hearing that lasted all Saturday and overnight into Sunday.

The votes came after hundreds of Texans rushed to Austin, crowded the halls of the state capitol and waited their turn to voice their opinions — most in opposition — to legislation that is now speeding through the legislative process. Referred to as “election integrity” bills by supporters and “voter suppression” bills by opponents, the bills debated in the regular session were tweaked to omit two of the most contentious measures: prohibiting early voting before 1 p.m. on Sundays and making it easier for judges to overturn an election.

Explaining the bill to his colleagues, Rep. Andrew Murr (R) said the main purpose of House Bill 3 was to address election integrity and security, and to establish uniformity in how Texans vote across the state.

“This is a serious attempt to make sure that Texas has good policy in place,” Murr said. “I’m confident that we’re here because of the electoral process and our constituents trust us, but at the same time, I want them to always continue to believe in that.”

Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes (R) wrote the upper chamber’s version of the bill and said he had been working on measures to change voting in Texas since 2005.

“We’re always refining and trying to improve the process,” Hughes said at the start of the Senate committee’s hearing Saturday. “Unfortunately, this one has become bitterly partisan.”

Democrats see the legislation as an attempt to limit the votes of minorities, people with disabilities and senior citizens, because they prohibit or reduce the use of tactics that Democrats say make voting accessible to more people.

“Early this morning, Republicans voted to advance a bill to ban 24-hour voting, following an overnight committee hearing that lasted nearly 24 hours,” state Rep. Chris Turner (D) said in a statement. “You just can’t make this up: Republicans are passing anti-voter legislation overnight to prohibit Texans from casting a ballot overnight.”

Among the many people who addressed lawmakers was Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman and presidential candidate, who spent hours grinning for pictures with constituents before testifying in both hearings.

“This is already the toughest state in which to vote, bar none,” O’Rourke said to senators. “You are now proposing a set of restrictions in this elections bill that is going to make it that much harder for people to participate.”

The legislation is a priority for Abbott, who defended the bills in a television interview Sunday and kept repeating that states, not counties, have the power to regulate elections under the Constitution.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Abbott claimed that 24-hour voting does not allow for transparency and that drive-through voting violated “the sanctity of the ballot box,” since a voter could be influenced by other passengers in the car or by seeing a bumper sticker on another vehicle.

“With regard to the drive-through voting — listen, this violates the fundamentals of the way voting and voter integrity has always been achieved and that is the sanctity of the ballot box,” Abbott told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “Are you going to have people in the car with you … who may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot?”

Abbott also defended issues to be covered in the Texas legislature’s special session, after Wallace noted that no bills related to the state’s power grid made it to the session despite worries that the grid, which failed in February, could shut down once again during the summer.

Wang reported from Washington. Mariana Alfaro in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more: