Texas election laws are part of a national trend of voter suppression rules
Today, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) notified the state of Texas that it would not approve the state’s new voter ID law because it violated the Voting Rights Act.
Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, issued the following statement in response:
“Photo ID rules have the effect of creating real hurdles to voting. In Texas, the Department of Justice determined that voter ID rules stand in the way of minority citizens’ right to vote, and the department properly rejected the Texas voter ID law. Photo ID laws are the modern day equivalent of Jim Crow laws and must be opposed at every turn.
Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Department of Justice must “preclear” any new Texas election laws. Texas has the burden to prove that its laws have neither the purpose nor the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color or membership in a language minority group. In its letter to Texas, the Justice Department points to data that Hispanic registered voters are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic registered voters to lack the needed identification to vote. DOJ found that 10.8 percent of Hispanic registered voters do not have a driver’s license or personal identification card issued by state’s Department of Public Safety, but only 4.9 percent of non-Hispanic registered voters lack such identification. This disproportionate impact led to DOJ’s rejection of the law for preclearance.
The attempt to impose photo ID requirements is part of a recent trend in Texas towards laws that are hostile to voter participation. The current Texas election laws limiting community voter registration drives also disenfranchise minority voters, who were twice as likely as white voters to register to vote through such drives in 2008. Texas rules have created a voter registration system characterized by criminal penalties and vague and unduly burdensome requirements that violate the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) as well as the Constitution, and which make it nearly impossible for voter registration organizations to conduct their work in the state.
Project Vote’s affiliate, Voting for America, has filed litigation challenging Texas’s election code. The Department of Justice is also currently reviewing the law pertaining to voter registration in Texas, and it is our hope that the Department will reject these provisions as they did voter ID.”
Update: The prohibition on performance-based compensation for registering voters was precleared by the DOJ on March 6, 2012.
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