Obama administration blocks Texas voter ID law

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday blocked a new Texas law requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot out of concerns it could harm some Hispanic voters who lack such identification.

The state law approved in May 2011 required voters to show government-issued photo identification, which could include a driver's license, a military identification card, a birth certificate with a photo, a current U.S. passport, or a concealed handgun permit.

The Justice Department said that data from Texas showed that almost 11 percent of Hispanic voters, just over 300,000, did not have a driver's license or state issued identification card, and that plans to mitigate those concerns were incomplete.

"Hispanic registered voters are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic registered voters to lack such identification," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said in a letter to the Texas director of elections outlining the objection.

This is the second state voter identification law blocked by the Obama administration, which earlier objected to a strict new law in South Carolina that it prevented from taking effect. South Carolina then sued in federal court seeking approval of its law.

Under the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, certain states like Texas must seek approval from the Justice Department or the federal courts for changes made to state voting laws and boundaries for voting districts.

The Obama administration has already challenged the state's attempt to re-draw congressional districts and that fight is now before the courts. Texas has also sued to get approval for its voter identification law.

Several other states, including Kansas and Wisconsin, have adopted stricter new voter identification laws, arguing that they were necessary to prevent fraud at the ballot box. However some civil rights groups have said that the laws threatened to suppress minority voters.

In Texas, the Justice Department said that potential voters would have to have two other identification documents to get a certificate allowing them to vote, which could require paying expensive fees for copies of legal documents such as birth certificates.

Additionally, nearly one third of the counties in the state do not have offices where potential voters can obtain a driver's license or state identification card and some residents live more than 100 miles away, the Justice Department said.

Efforts to educate voters about the new identification requirements were also incomplete and the state did not submit any evidence of voter impersonation not already addressed under existing state laws, the administration said.

"The state has failed to demonstrate why it could not meet its stated goals of ensuring electoral integrity and deterring ineligible voters from voting in a manner that would have voided this retrogressive effect," Perez said.

The Texas lawsuit for approval of the voter identification law is: State of Texas v. Holder in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-cv-128.


*What a crying shame!

This is very unfair what Texas is trying to do.  They know that most of the illegals don't have proper ID and will not vote for fear of getting found out.  So what do they do...they come up with some stupid ass law to show two forms of ID to cast your vote. 

What a shame!

The Obama Administration is doing the right thing.  They are at least, trying to give folks a fair shake.  Of course we all know that there is a price to be paid with that.

At some point instead of trying to get rid of the illegals, they have to try to work with them on making their communities a much better place to live. 

At the end of the day, this is another way to weed out more an more voters to keep them from voting in this years election. For the convervatives to do just that, then, they have no right to talk smack about President Obama.



Diva's Nation
Join The "Obama Administration Blocks Texas ID Law" Conversation*