More than five years after Republicans fast-tracked legislation limiting the forms of ID accepted to vote in Texas elections, state taxpayers are still picking up the tab for defending the nation’s strictest voter identification law in court. The state has spent more than $3.5 million defending the law in the five separate lawsuits it has spawned, records obtained from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office show. Whether that spending is a “shameful waste” or the cost of fending off the federal government depends on whom you ask. Paxton’s legal team is battling the U.S. Department of Justice, minority groups and other opponents who argue — thus far successfully — that Senate Bill 14, passed in 2011, discriminates against minorities, elderly and poor Texans most likely to lack acceptable government-issued IDs.
Paxton, Gov. Greg Abbott and the law’s backers say it was needed to protect the integrity of elections by preventing voter fraud, but opponents cite the paucity of proven voter fraud in the state and argue the intent was to disenfranchise certain voters.
The state’s legal tab includes court fees, expert witnesses, outside lawyers, travel costs and state employees’ time spent working on the flurry of litigation the voter ID law triggered. The costs will only grow, with most new spending attached to Veasey v. Abbott, the primary lawsuit, which has been going for three years.
Full Article: State’s Tab Defending Voter ID $3.5 Million So Far | The Texas Tribune.