Corporate America is training to focus on Texas in the legal battle for the final vote

The U.S. campaign to defend voting rights has moved to Texas, and dozens of companies, including Microsoft, HP and Salesforce, have called on local officials to oppose changes that would restrict voter turnout.

The open letter on Tuesday the Fair Elections Texas coalition, which described it as a non-partisan group, is the latest in a series of reprimands on major bills proposed by big companies to Republicans after the loss of Donald Trump’s election.

According to the independent Brennan Center for Justice, nearly 50 restrictive bills have been filed in Texas, more than in any other state.

The most complete of these would be to limit voting by mail, limit early voting hours, increase the chances of long queues on election day, encourage voter list cleansing, and increase voters ’risk of intimidation, Brennan Center said. warn.

The Fair Elections letter in Texas, which included American Airlines, Levi Strauss and Unilever among the signatories, showed accessibility to voting among voters on both sides, which is good for business and key to companies ’commitment to racial equity.

The organizers of the letter referred to the findings of a Republican constituency voter bilateral support for policies that increase access to polling stations, and a examination suggesting that the Texas economy could lose billions of dollars if the vote cuts become law.

“We believe that the growth of free enterprise is directly linked to the freedom of citizens. Freedom is maintained in our democracy when we hold free and fair elections that protect the basic rights of all Texans,” the coalition wrote.

Texas has seen it recently corporate investment. CBRE, Charles Schwabe and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have moved their headquarters to Lone Star State, which has no corporate or personal income tax at the state level. Tesla is building a Gigafactory there, and Apple is developing a $ 1 billion campus in Austin.

American Airlines and Dell, the two Texas-based airlines, have already protested against specific Republican voting bills, and Democrats and civil rights groups have accused Texas voters of disproportionately dissuading them from racial and ethnic minorities.

State Republicans have backed down. Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, said last month that Texans were “disgusted with corporations that don’t share our values ​​in trying to dictate public policy.”

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last week, Senator Ted Cruz warn “Wake up the General Directorate”: “When the time comes when you need help with a tax cut or a change in regulations, I hope Democrats take your calls because we don’t.”

Last month, Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, among others, rejected Georgian new voting legislation. Mitch McConnellThe head of the Senate minority accused the company of “acting like an awakened parallel government” and told them to “stay out of politics”.

Instead, the leaders wanted to meet in coalitions to coordinate their response 361 have been calculated Restrictive voting bills introduced in 47 states, as well as federal legislation proposed by Democrats to expand access to voting.

Several executives have also addressed the issue at meetings in recent weeks. Larry Culpe, CEO of GE, said shareholders on Tuesday it would not “weigh the pieces of electoral legislation being examined in all 50 states,” but GE believed that elections should be accessible, fair, safe, and transparent.

Asked last week why his bank succumbed to “far-left lies” about Georgia’s new voting laws, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said he did not comment on any state law, but signed a letter “to vote.” fundamental and fundamental right ”.