Texas House speaker signed an arrest warrant for 52 missing Democrats, some of whom left the state to block a voting bill

• Dade Phelan has signed civil arrest warrants for missing Democrats to return to the state Capitol.
• The absent representatives are trying to block an elections bill with new voting restrictions.
• In May, the Democrats successfully blocked the bill using the same walkout method.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan signed civil arrest warrants Tuesday evening for 52 House Democrats who have been absent from the state Capitol to block an elections bill they say would harm minority voters.

The signing was confirmed by Phelan's spokesperson, Enrique Marquez, who said the warrants would be delivered to the House sergeant-at-arms on Wednesday morning, according to The Dallas Morning News, which first reported the story.

The missing Democrats won't face criminal charges or fines but can be brought to the House chamber by authorities, according to an example of the warrants tweeted by the Dallas Morning News statehouse reporter Allie Morris.

The representatives have been absent as a means of preventing the Texas House from reaching the two-thirds attendance it needs to decide on a GOP bill that would introduce more restrictions to election laws, like new identification requirements for people voting by mail and a ban on drive-thru voting.

Republican representatives said these new restrictions would help prevent voter fraud, but civil-rights advocates said the measures the new bill would ban had benefited voters of color and shift workers in the 2020 election.

In May, Democrats successfully blocked the same bill using this same method, but House Republicans have moved to reconsider the measure again. This time, the Texas House voted 80-12 to authorize law enforcement to make the Democrats return.

Not all of the absentees have to come back for voting on the bill to resume. Based on Tuesday's attendance, the House needs just four more of its 150 members to be present so it can be back in business, The Dallas Morning News reported.