Texas' voter ID law goes before federal court today

[maddezmom]

Source: USA Today

Texas' controversial voter ID law goes on trial in Washington starting today, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and other news organizations.

The trial before a panel of judges starts this morning in U.S. District Court in downtown Washington. In the lawsuit Texas v. Attorney General Eric Holder, the state asks the court to approve its law requiring that voters produce a government-issued photo card, and also asks the court to strike down a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires states with a history of voter discrimination to get approval for new voter plans. Student IDs are not accepted under the Texas law.

Texas is one of the states required under the Voting Rights Act to have new voting laws cleared in advance by the Justice Department. In March, the federal agency struck down the 2011 Texas law, saying that based on Texas' own data, more than 600,000 of the state's registered voters lack a driver's license or ID card issued by the state's Department of Public Safety and a disproportional amount are Latino, the Star-Telegram reports. The Justice Department also maintained that providing free state cards from the public safety agency was not enough because 81 of Texas' 254 counties don't have offices, according to the news agency.

Texas Republicans say the law is necessary to combat voter fraud, while Democrats in the state say the requirement will block thousands of poor, elderly and minority voters from the right to vote. Republicans have said that if Democrats cast fewer votes, it's OK as long as the ID requirement did not target minority voters, the Star-Telegram says.


Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/07/texas-voter-id-law-goes-before-federal-court-today/1

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Please

Please please please let Eric Holder win.

[Kablooie]

2. Seems to me that any law that disenfranchises legal voters should be unconstitutional.

Any law that criminalizes the innocent in order to catch more crooks should not stand.

Of course I know that's the whole point of the law, not to catch crooks, of which there are only a handful, but to prevent the innocent from voting.

[LittleGirl]

3. ID won't stop voter fraud

Google Charlie White, the Secretary of State for Indiana who is in charge of elections in this state. He was convicted of several counts of voter fraud and he used his ID to vote. The republican governor would not replace him until he was proven to have committed felony voter fraud. IOKIYAR

[Gothmog]

4. Stupid argument by Greg Abbott

One of the dumber arguments by Greg Abbott is that 92 year old Dorthy Tates will not be prejudiced by this law because she can vote by mail (the Texas equivalent of absentee voting) https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxeOfQQnUr_gRmZQSGtNN1IzSmM/edit?pli=1 This is a stupid argument even coming from Abbott. If Ms Tates is a danger to the system and should not be allowed to vote in person, then why is it okay for her to vote by mail?

[maddezmom]

5. Texas says voter ID law needed to combat "culture of election fraud"

WASHINGTON | Mon Jul 9, 2012 5:23pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A law requiring Texas voters to present photo identification at the polls is needed to combat a culture of election fraud plaguing the state, lawyers representing Texas argued in a landmark federal court case on Monday.

Lawyers representing the state of Texas began their weeklong defense of the 2011 voter ID law in the first case challenging the federal government's power to block such a law since the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama took office.

Texas hopes the case will eventually lead to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965 amid civil rights protests to protect minority voters, has outlived its usefulness.

The federal government was able to block the Texas law from taking effect under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a rule that applies only to certain states with a particularly heavy history of racial suppression, such as Texas.

more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/09/us-usa-texas-voter-idUSBRE8681BL20120709

[Dustlawyer]

6. Once again, I join with the Dixie Chicks in saying I am ashamed of my once proud state!

This is a transparent attempt to rig the elections. Ask them how many fraudulent votes have been cast in the last election vs. how many they gladly disenfranchise! They plan on doing it by computers anyway. If they really want to stop voter fraud, they should place the same kind of fraud protection used by the credit card companies.