Good riddance.

One of the most cynical, divisive and frankly pointless bills of the Texas legislative session is dead. And only Republican partisans will be shedding tears.

Senate Bill 9 was a bad bill only made worse when a House committee last week stripped out the only provision that could garner bipartisan support, demonstrating how some Republicans are more interested in voter suppression than they are in safeguarding elections in Texas.

The dropped measure would have required counties to use voting machines that provided a paper record. That ability for voters to audit their ballot was the only commendable idea contained in the otherwise noxious bill, by Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth.

It appeared on its way to becoming law after it passed the Senate on a party-line vote and was approved by the House Elections Committee on Friday.

Mercifully, though, leadership in the House either saw the bill for what it was or relented under growing opposition to the bill from Democrats, civil rights groups, government watchdogs and outraged citizens.

In recent days, the county judges of Harris, Dallas, Bexar, El Paso and Travis County wrote a letter expressing their “deep concerns” over what they called a “dangerous bill” that is “a sharp attack on the voting rights of our citizens, especially those who have a disability or who do not speak English.”

Late Sunday night, word came that SB 9 was effectively dead after the House Calendars Committee decided not to include it on the list of bills to be considered by the full House next week. Of course, lawmakers can try and tack provisions in the bill onto other legislation, but that’s not an easy feat and the author didn’t seem optimistic.

What appears to have happened is that leaders in the House, including Speaker Dennis Bonnen and perhaps calendars committee chair Rep. Four Price, showed some leadership and did the right thing for Texas.

It’s more than we can say for the Senate, where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed a false narrative that the bill was about election integrity and combatting voter fraud. The version of the bill that died was nothing more than a multipronged assault on Texas voters, designed to make it harder to cast a ballot, especially for marginalized populations.

There’s no integrity in that.

SB 9 would have raised criminal penalties for providing false information on a voter registration form, even if was an honest mistake. The punishment for voter fraud should be severe, but in the overheated atmosphere that led Texas officials to produce — and quickly backtrack — from a list of 95,000 alleged noncitizens who registered illegally, there is little confidence that innocent people wouldn’t be ensnared. The bill also made it a misdemeanor to impede a walkway, sidewalk, parking lot or roadway within 500 feet — about 1.5 times the length of a football field — “in a manner that hinders a person” from entering a polling place. As the ACLU of Texas pointed out, the long distance and broad definition could entrap people there to assist with voting or exercise their right to free speech near a polling location.

Under the pretext of protecting senior voters and those with disabilities, the bill allowed partisan poll watchers or election officials to be in the voting booth when a volunteer was helping someone with their ballot, a federally protected right. That ballot could then be examined, leaving officials, including partisans, to determine whether it was “prepared in accordance with the voter’s wishes.” SB 9 also imposed additional and unnecessary paperwork for volunteers, including those who drive voters to the polls for curbside voting.

These were all clear intimidation efforts to either scare potential voters away or make voting more difficult. But not content with removing the verifiable paper trail that had been a part of the Senate version, new language added by the House Elections Committee meant longer lines in Houston and other major cities. After a rout by Democrats in urban areas in the midterms, it was impossible not to find this change suspect.

In a letter to Klick, Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman called SB 9 a legislatively created impediment to voting and said that if the county was forced to follow the bill’s guidelines, not only would it lead to fewer polling locations, it would be impossible for the clerk’s office to open additional polling places in voting areas that experience increased demand. This would “likely lead to long lines, frustration and disenfranchisement,” she said.

Addressing the Elections Committee last week, Klick said the intent of SB 9 was to strengthen election integrity and make sure “no legal voter is inhibited from casting their ballot.”

If that was the bill’s intent, it was a failure. We’re glad we can celebrate its demise.