A USA district judge this month put in place similar requirements in Wisconsin, which had a voter ID law along the lines of the one in Texas.
Advertisement
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday ordered a remedy ahead of the November general election to the law, which requires voters to present a photo identification such as a Texas driver’s license, passport or military ID card.
On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a significant blow to the Lone Star state’s voter ID law, until a lower court can resolve questions about whether the law places an unconstitutional burden on the voting rights of Texans, NPR reported.
“It’s a great day for civil rights across America, and it’s a critically important achievement for voters throughout Texas who have as of late been routinely mistreated by state leaders”, said Houston attorney Chad Dunn, who helped represent a team of Democrats and minority rights groups that challenged the law.
The court decision Wednesday came after a three-judge panel ruled previous year that the law violated the Voting Rights Act, and Texas appealed.
The 2011-passed Texas voter ID law, the nation’s strictest, mandates that only a short list of IDs can be used by voters to identify themselves at the polls.
A lower court now will have to work with the state to ensure that anyone without approved identification can still vote in November.
AUSTIN, Texas Some Texas voters may need to show a state postcard listing them on the election roll to cast ballots in November elections after a USA appeals court found the state’s voter ID was discriminatory, specialists said on Thursday. Not surprisingly, numerous states with no form of voter ID laws – like California, New York and MA – are not only Democrat controlled but are some of the most liberal in the nation.
“It is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety”, Paxton said in a statement. But prior to this week the measures in only nine including Texas and Wisconsin were considered especially restrictive.
Texas elections officials may not be able to enforce a voter ID requirement this fall, as a panel federal judges has agreed with a lower court and found the requirement to be discriminatory against racial minorities.
In a dissenting opinion, other judges warned that Wednesday’s ruling will “backfire”.
Texas doesn’t recognize university IDs from college students as one of the seven forms of acceptable ID, but does accept concealed handgun licenses as proof of identity.
“One of the reasons why I became the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is because I wanted to make sure that voting would continue to stay easy in Texas”, he says.
Advertisement
He said there may also be a reasonable impediment exemption where some voters sign an affidavit saying they have had trouble obtaining a mandated ID.
