A law in Texas that would allow would-be voters to cast ballots with only
certain forms of photographic identification has been knocked down by a U.S. court in
Washington.
Voter ID laws have become a hot-button issue leading up to
the November presidential election, pitting state legislatures proposing and
sometimes passing such laws against civil rights advocacy organizations who
argue the laws are designed to keep minorities from the ballots.
In issuing their 56-page opinion Thursday, the judges wrote
that the Texas law likely would have a "retrogressive effect" on the ability of
minority voters to cast ballots and said the "implicit costs" of obtaining
necessary ID "will fall most heavily on the poor." The three-judge panel also
noted that a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and
Hispanics in Texas live in poverty.
Texas and other proponents of voter ID laws say the
measures are necessary to prevent voter impersonation or fraud. Last year,
Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode
Island and Wisconsin passed new voter ID laws while Texas, South
Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee tightened existing laws.
Governors in Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New
Hampshire and North
Carolina vetoed strict new voter ID laws. This week, South Carolina's law is
on trial in front of a three-judge panel in the same federal courthouse where
the Texas law was struck down.
Civil rights organizations have argued that minority voters
are less likely to have picture IDs, less likely to be able to afford new photo
IDs and, in some cases, older minority voters might not have been granted the
birth certificates required to obtain some forms of photographic
identification.
The judges in Washington reviewed the Texas measure after
the state appealed a rejection from the Justice
Department, which is required to review proposed voting laws in Texas and
other states and jurisdictions that have a history of voter discrimination.
The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the
state would appeal the decision to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
"Today's decision is wrong on the law and improperly
prevents Texas from implementing the same type of ballot integrity safeguards
that are employed by Georgia and Indiana and were upheld by the Supreme Court,"
the statement said, referring to voter ID measures in those two states that
passed Supreme Court challenges.
The office of Gov. Rick
Perry issued a bristling statement that read, "Chalk up another victory for
fraud. Federal judges subverted the will of the people of Texas."
The Department of Justice opposed the Texas law because,
the agency said, it would have required many people without the proper voter
identification to travel long distances in order to get one and, in some cases,
pay for the documents they might need to secure that ID.
"When a jurisdiction meets its burden of proving that a
proposed voting change would not have a racially discriminatory purpose or
effect, the Department will not oppose that change," Attorney General Eric
Holder said in a statement. "When a jurisdiction fails to meet that burden, we
will object."
The head of the Texas State Conference of the NAACP, which
presented evidence before the judges against the proposed law, said the decision
proves the need for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires
preclearance.
"The (Texas) law was so broad and unreasonable that clearly
its goal was to suppress minority votes," Gary Bledsoe, conference president,
said.
A representative for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law said no one is saying they are in favor of voter fraud, but
added that the state's current law, which allows some non-photo identification
for voters, already prevents fraud.
"That's sort of a solution in search of a problem," Bob
Kengle, co-director of the committee's Voting Rights Project, said of Texas'
position.
The Texas secretary of State issued a statement Thursday
saying the election would proceed under current state law.
via usatoday
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