Opponents of Texas’ new voter ID law asked a federal judge this week to return the state’s election rules to the days when people could access the polls with a voter registration card. Texas has been embroiled in a legal battle over its voter ID laws since 2011 when the Republican-controlled Legislature passed Senate Bill 14, claiming it was necessary to address Texans’ voter fraud concerns. Buoyed by the election of President Donald Trump, who claims he lost the popular vote in November to Hillary Clinton because 2 million people voted illegally, Texas claims in court filings that changes it’s made to its voter ID law sufficiently address the concerns of the Fifth Circuit that found SB 14 disenfranchises minorities, who are more likely to vote for Democrats.
Texas claims its new law, Senate Bill 5, complies with the Voting Rights Act because it lets registered voters who don’t have one of eight acceptable forms of photo ID vote after signing a reasonable-impediment declaration stating why they couldn’t get the right ID.
It’s now up to U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos to decide whether to block SB 5 from taking effect on Jan. 1, 2018.
Gonzales Ramos ruled in April that Texas had intentionally crafted SB14 to suppress the votes of minorities and is now considering whether SB5 goes far enough to undo the voting restrictions imposed by SB 14.
Full Article: Judge Weighs Scrapping Reformed Texas Voter-ID Law.
