NPR:

Texas legislators approved new, more restrictive state election rules aftera session that lasted from Thursday night into the early morning hours of Friday. The GOP-backed state Senate bill passed the House at 3 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) after hours of debate over Democratic-proposed amendments.

The House version of the bill, which differs significantly from what passed the state Senate, will now go to a conference committee to resolve the differences.

The bill would make it a felony to provide a voter with an application to vote by mail if they hadn’t requested one, or to use any public funds to facilitate the third-party distribution of mail-in voting applications.

The ability for polling place “watchers” to be present throughout the election day is also expanded under the bill. It sets a high bar for when such observers can be taken out of the polling place. The bill states they can be removed “only if the watcher engages in activity that would constitute an offense related to the conduct of the election.”