There is, perhaps, never a good time for local elections administrators to be undermining federal court orders, ignoring state officials and providing voters with false information about what is required to cast a ballot. But for poll workers in Texas who have been caught spreading inaccurate information about the state’s voter ID law, the timing is particularly unfortunate, given the legal scrutiny the law already is under and is continuing to the attract. The same civil rights groups and voting advocates who have been engaged in a lengthy legal battle over the law — which has been deemed discriminatory by multiple courts — are now reporting that some county officials are failing to educate voters about the alternatives available to those without the required ID. At least one county faces a lawsuit for posting inaccurate information about the law, while the Texas secretary of state has been alerted to numerous other polling places misinforming votes. The on-the-ground confusion comes as Texas is seeking to have the major ruling against the law — a 5th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals decision that deemed it discriminatory in its effect — overturned by the Supreme Court.
“The problems that Texas is having right now with this election is definitely going to bleed into the narrative about the voter ID case, as the Supreme Court considers it,” said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). “It makes Texas look recalcitrant and provides more evidence for the suggestion that this law is purposely discriminatory, at least in the narrative around the case, if not in the record.”
As a technical matter, the latest issues officials have had won’t be entered into the official record of evidence in the case. But it’s likely that at least some of the justices, if not their clerks, are at least aware of the news. A district court is also reexamining whether the voter ID law was passed with an intent to discriminate against minority voters.
Full Article: Flouting Federal Courts On Voter ID Isn’t Helping Texas’ Legal Defense.