Civil rights group say voter fraud is rare, and voter ID laws used in Texas and other Republican-led states are aimed at suppressing the votes of racial minorities and those in poverty who typically support Democrats.
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The move, for now, is only symbolic.
Paxton’s office said the petition will not affect the November 2016 elections.
Friday, the state filed an appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the 2011 law that required voters to produce a form of photo identification at the voting booths.
“In a release, Paxton called the voter identification a safeguard to the, ‘integrity of elections-essential to preserving democracy”. “Texas enacted a common-sense voter ID law and I am confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately reinstate it”. “But”, she added, “with Texas’ already abysmally low voter turnout, the real question is why Attorney General Paxton would waste upwards of 3.5 million taxpayer dollars (and counting) defending a law that disenfranchises more than 600,000 eligible voters”.
The appeals court returned the case to U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi to determine if the law was intentionally discriminatory, noting that the statute restricted ballot access for some voters to cure an “almost nonexistent problem”.
But this could be the first time the justices get to examine it in depth, presenting them with an opportunity to revisit their own thinking on voter ID laws.
Veasey is also leading an effort to update the Voting Rights Act in Congress after the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that parts of the law had to be revised.
If the Supreme Court hears the Texas case without a replacement for deceased Justice Antonin Scalia, Paxton would need five votes to overturn the appellate court’s ruling.
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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in July struck down part of the law in a 9-6 ruling, with the majority saying the law was not meant to discriminate but had that effect on minority voters.
