Federal Court Rules Texas Voter ID Law Discriminatory

Texas’ strict voter ID law discriminates against minorities and the poor and must be weakened before the November elections, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, following claims that at least a half-million registered voters could have struggled to cast a ballot.

The ruling was a striking election-year victory for President Barack Obama’s administration, which took the unusual step of bringing the U.S. Justice Department into Texas to fight the case. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the ruling affirmed that the 2011 law — which Texas enforced in three elections — abridged the right to vote based on race or color.

Republicans were dealt a second blow in as many days to a new breed of strict voter ID measures that limits the kind of photo identifications that are valid. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that residents without a photo ID in that state will still be allowed to vote in November.

Voters must still show identification at the polls in Texas under the decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is regarded as one of the most conservative panels in the country. But a lower court is now instructed to devise a way for Texas to accommodate those who cannot.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed disappointment and must now work with opponents on putting a Band-Aid on the law with less than four months until Election Day.

“It is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety,” Paxton said in a statement.

Lawyers for Texas have argued that the state makes free IDs easy to obtain. They said any inconveniences or costs involved in getting one do not substantially burden the right to vote, and that the Justice Department and other plaintiffs had failed to prove that the law resulted in denying anyone that right.

Opponents countered that trial testimony indicated various bureaucratic and economic burdens associated with the law — for instance, the difficulty in finding and purchasing a proper birth certificate to obtain an ID. A court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union cited testimony in other voter ID states indicating numerous difficulties faced by people, including burdensome travel and expenses to get required documentation to obtain IDs.

The Texas law allowed seven different forms of ID to be used to verify proper identification! It is highly unlikely that anyone could legitimately be lacking all of the allowed ID verification documents, which leads us to the logical conclusion that Democrats are simply willing to corrupt the Democratic voting system in order to win an election by fraud. That is what is going on here, and it is cynical and destructive. It would be wonderful if Democrat voters could be counted on to be honest and forthright so that no one would ever need identification to vote. But they have proven that if they can steal an election through dishonesty, they will.

Watch for other shenanigans such as “lost” boxes of votes and counties that register 99% support for the Democrats on election day. It is a tradition with them.

Source: bigstory.ap.org