Holy cow — now there’s another ruling against Texas election law. Once again, a federal judge has found that the state’s lawmakers intentionally discriminated on the basis of race when they were changing voting rules. If this happens enough times, the state might actually be forced to change its ways. In last month’s redistricting ruling from a three-judge federal panel in San Antonio, and in this week’s ruling on Voter ID, Texas was called out for intentional racial discrimination. The state seems to be doing everything in its power to prove that it cannot be trusted with voting rights. Maybe that’s no surprise. You know what political people are like: They’re the kind of people who bend and stretch the rules to make sure they’ll win. They cut corners when they think nobody is looking. They do every single thing they think they can get away with. The winners get to run the government.
But some rules cannot safely be broken. Some corners cannot be cut — if only because so many competitors are watching. It’s all under surveillance. The facts might come out right away, they might come out later, but a cut corner in a redistricting or voting fight eventually comes out. Cheaters get caught.
That’s not really news. Everybody in the game knows that’s the game. So when people cut corners, consider their motives. Are they just dumb? Or are they betting that the advantage of cutting the corner will be worth the trouble?
Full Article: Analysis: A law that lets political majorities cheat — and win | The Texas Tribune.