EXPLAINER: What's in the Texas GOP's voting bills?

The Texas voting bills that prompted state Democrats' flight to Washington this week include a raft of tweaks and changes to the state's election code. Some are dramatic, others highly technical, and a couple could make life easier for voters.

But taken as a whole, the changes add up to one clear result: If the proposals pass, it will become harder — and even, sometimes, legally riskier — to cast a ballot in Texas, a state that already has some of the most restrictive election laws in the country.

Here's a close look at what's in the two bills now at the center of the battle over voting rights:

EMPOWERING POLL WATCHERS

Some of the most significant changes in the Texas legislation concerns partisan poll watchers, the volunteers deployed by both major parties to observe voting and counting. As recently as 1962, Republican poll watchers in some parts of Texas challenged Black and Latino voters to read and explain the U.S. Constitution before casting ballots as part of a campaign dubbed “Operation Eagle Eye.” In 2020, then-President Donald Trump cited unverified observations from GOP poll watchers to spread doubt about the results and make false claims of fraud.

The Texas House and Senate bills give partisan poll watcher new access, protections and power. The legislation would make it a crime for an election official to reject a poll watcher who meets the qualifications for the position. The measures would make it illegal to obstruct a poll watcher's view, and the Senate bill states that poll watchers are “entitled to sit or stand near enough to hear or see the activity.” Texas law still prohibits poll watchers from watching someone actually cast a ballot, however.

The legislation empowers poll watchers to sue and seek court orders against election officials who get in...