Texas Voter ID Law Blocked by Justice Department as Biased

[Twana Blevins]

Another fed. district court judge unconstitutionally plays interference for Hussein Obama admin. and a state.

Twana

 

 

US Constitution

Article 3 Section 2 :

 

"...The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;--to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;--to controversies between two or more states;--between a state and citizens of another state;--between citizens of different states;--between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make."

 

_______________________________________________

 

 

Bloomberg

 

The Obama administration blocked Texas (BEESTX)’s new law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification at the polls, escalating a partisan dispute over voting restrictions.

The U.S. Justice Department used its power under the Voting Rights Act to halt the Texas law, saying in a letter to the state today that the measure may disproportionately harm Hispanics. The department in December blocked a similar law in South Carolina (NFSESC).

Enlarge image

A Republican caucus in Stillwater, Minnesota. Photographer: Kyndell Harkness/Star Tribune/AP

Democrats have objected to the voter ID laws as impediments to minority voting while Republicans have said they protect the integrity of elections. Republican officials in Texas, one of eight states that passed voter identification laws last year, said the administration has no valid reason to challenge the measure.

“Their denial is yet another example of the Obama administration’s continuing and pervasive federal overreach,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said in a statement.

The Justice Department’s decision isn’t final. Texas and South Carolina have filed suit in federal court in Washington seeking permission to enforce their photo ID requirements.

Before blocking South Carolina’s law, the last time the Justice Department challenged a state voter identification measure under the Voting Rights Act was in 1994.

History Binds States

Texas and South Carolina are among 16 states or portions of states that must obtain permission from the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington before redrawing their district lines or changing election procedures because of a history of voting rights violations.

Hispanic registered voters in Texas are 47 percent to 120 percent more likely to lack the required identification than non-Hispanic voters, the Justice Department said in its letter. Texas has 12.9 million registered voters of whom 2.81 million are Hispanic.

“Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver’s license or a personal identification card,” Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote in the letter to Keith Ingram, the director of elections for the Texas Secretary of State.

The Voting Rights Act puts the burden on Texas to prove its law wouldn’t interfere with minorities’ ability to vote.

‘Federal Overreach’

Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the Justice Department’s action is an example of the administration’s “abuse of executive authority.”

The American Civil Liberties Union supports the administration’s efforts to block the laws.

“It’s a good sign that the Department of Justice is stepping into the jurisdictions where it can to stop these laws in their tracks,” said Nancy Abudu, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project in Atlanta,

Under the Texas law signed last year by Perry, voters who arrive at the polls without one of seven acceptable forms of photo IDs issued by the state or federal government, including concealed carry handgun permits, would be given a provisional ballot, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website.

Those ballots would count only if voters bring an approved ID to the registrar’s office within six days of the election.

‘Minor Inconveniences’

The law exempts mail-in ballots and voters with significant disabilities or religious objections to being photographed.

The law’s requirements “entail minor inconveniences on exercising the right to vote,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in his court filing on Jan. 24.

The photo ID law would disproportionately affect poor and minority voters, who are least likely to have any of the required forms of identification or the documentation needed to obtain one, said Luis Figueroa, a San Antonio, Texas-based legislative staff attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. It also would hurt students because college or university IDs would not be accepted, Figueroa said.

The photo ID requirement could suppress minority turnout by three percent to five percent in Harris County, where Houston is located, and give Republicans an edge in local elections, said Carroll Robinson, a professor at Texas Southern University in Houston and a former city council member.

Election Integrity

“We’re going to disenfranchise significant numbers of minority voters as they become more and more the majority in Texas,” Robinson said.

Patricia Harless, a Republican state representative, said concerns among constituents about “the integrity of elections” rather than possible partisan advantage explains why she sponsored the voter ID measure last year. The law reduces the possibility of fraud, she said.

Lawmakers excluded student IDs because “we wanted a form of identification that was easily recognized by the poll workers at the election site,” Harless said.

Voters 65 and older automatically qualify to cast ballots by mail, which requires no ID, and the state will provide free voter identification cards.

“We worked really hard to make sure we met the constitutional requirements,” Harless said.

Lacking State ID

The Obama administration blocked South Carolina’s law in December after concluding minorities in the state are almost 20 percent more likely to lack state-issued identification than white registered voters.

The Justice Department asked for similar statistics from Texas, which said it doesn’t collect the kind of racial data needed to accurately determine how many of the state’s registered voters don’t have a driver’s license or state ID card are black or Hispanic. Texas provided data based on Hispanic surnames and no data on the impact on black voters, according to the Justice Department.

Jasmine Price, a sophomore at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college 30 miles from Houston, said the law would make it harder for her to vote in person in Texas, as she’d prefer, rather than by absentee ballot in her home state, Arkansas.

Price, 19, said if the law takes effect, she’ll try to find the time in between a full course load and three shifts a week as a manager at a Houston sporting goods store to drive seven miles from campus to the nearest state Department of Public Safety office that issues IDs.

Literacy Tests

“My forefathers had it even harder to vote -- they had to pass literacy tests -- but they made sure they did what they had to do so that their vote could count,” said Price, who is black. “So if they say I have to go to the DPS office, as much as an inconvenience as it is to go there, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Alabama, where the voter ID law is not scheduled to go into effect until 2014, and Mississippi, where lawmakers haven’t adopted legislation to implement a citizen initiative approving a similar requirement, would also have to obtain Justice Department or federal court approval.

In Wisconsin, which doesn’t need to obtain the same kind of advance approval under federal law as Texas does, two state judges have temporarily blocked a voter ID requirement.

The latest ruling today in a challenge by the League of Women Voters came six days after a second judge ruled in a separate suit by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People against Governor Scott Walker.

To contact the reporter on this story: Seth Stern in Washington at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at [e-mail]

[Steven G. Elliott]

It is about time that the States quit listening to the feds.

[Cathy O'Brien]

This just infuriates me! What happened to the 10th Amendment and State's Rights?!? How much more does our country have to take before our elected officials stop this madness?

Hey, Pete Sessions. Don't just get appalled -- DO SOMETHING!

[Debi C]

What a bunch of malarky!  Everyone should already have an ID.  Of course, you have to prove your citizenship.  Oh you can't?  Well then, maybe you aren't a citizen.  What a surprise.

[Bruce Forster]

You think this is bad.

There is a low income housing complex in Tacoma WA.

It is section 8 and ONLY illegals are allowed to live there!

Your and my TAXES are paying for all of it!

[Richard Charles Wagener]

The Federal under Obama has stepped over the bounds set for it by the Constitution.  They are way out of control and their wings need to be clipped by the Congress.  The Czars have to go, the Dept Of Injustice under Eric Holder needs to revert to being a Dept. Of Justice.  I don't know where all these Dems determined to undermine the Constitution and replace it with a Monarchy need to have their ears pinned back in now uncertain terms.

Not their attempting to bully the States into not passing Voter ID laws should be the straw that breaks the camel's back. They don't give a damn about voter's rights they care about votes for the Democrat Party.  The ideal that a picture ID is an undo burden on the voter is Hogwash.  I'll bet they can all come up with a picture ID if it is necessary to buy a case of beer, or purchase things.  This is just another attempt to get more votes.  They weren't too concerned last election with the rights of the servicemen and women overseas to be able to vote.  If I remember right there were cases where the states did obey the law on getting the ballots out in time for the Military to Vote.

It's time these backroom politicians are removed from power as they obviously do not know how to handle.  We the people run this country, not the peons we hire for the various offices.  In many cases they are nothing but inflated bags of hot air with a suit on.  They are awed by their own Importance and their delusions of grandeau build them up to the level of Royalty.  The Little Dictator thinks he is King, and that has to change.  He needs to be thrown out the door on the seat of his pants, and the awe comes not from being King, but from looking up at the stars while outside the gates and wondering WHA HOPPONED?  And the same to the rest of folks whom we hired, and found them wanting in what it takes to do the jobs we hired them to do.  Then and only then can we the peoople reclaim our rightful place in the equation.

[Clois Beckwith]

I for one am so damn tired of going to the ballot box and I get asked for a photo id, but I have seen others come in and I know that they just got passed through without having to show a Photo ID especially on the Primary ballots. It should be required for every voter that walks through the door to prove they are American Citizens with a Photo ID, PERIOD, no exceptions....

[DENNY BAUM]

THIS IS JUST TOO CRAZY TO COMPREHEND. CRAZY IS ALL I CAN THINK. 

HOW MANY OF THESE INSANE BODY BLOWS ARE WE WILLING TO TAKE BEFORE WE PUNCH BACK?? IT'S ONE AFTER ANOTHER AFTER ANOTHER. CRAZY!!

Are we trying to use Cassius Clays' famous rope-a dope? Let them punch themselves out, then attack with avengence. Just ask Joe Frazier.

[carolg]

  I do not have a 'federal' photo ID but I have a Texas Driver's license and anyone who is a legal resident of Texas can obtaine a photo ID at the same place you get TDL.  I will personally escort anyone who can prove to me they are legal citizens and need a photo ID to get one.  Anyone who is a legal citizen has a social security number and a birth certificate or a record of citizenship.  I do not understand the problem.  Too many places must see a photo ID for various reasons;  cashing a check or opening a bank account, getting a job etc.  I feel the photo ID is the only way to cut down on a lot of fraud votes.

  There should be plenty of monitors at the polls to make sure those photo ID's are verified.      

[Richard Charles Wagener]

I'll bet nobody would have trouble coming up with a valid ID to buy beer, or dozens of other reasons.  The Dems aren't worried about the poor not being able to vote and we all know that.  Obama doesn't even have valid ID to prove he is a citizen and eligible to vote; much less be President/Commander in Chief and no limit to his security clearance and access to any and all Government Secrets.  What a joke the whole bunch this administration is and the Main Stream Liberal Media that carries their water and their Lies for them!

[Old Glory]

PENNSYLVANIA  VOTER?  On this website at the top "STATE GROUP" mouse click, now u will see icons (at top) mouse click 2nd Icon " PATRIOTS FOR AMERICA PENNSYLVANIA". TODAY 3-13-12 our state is voting on HB 934 VOTER ID BILL. There are instructions with website to all the House Representatives to BLAST EMAIL. Vote "YAH" on HB 934 Voter ID and put integrity back into the voting process.  Also instructions and website to ur senator letting them know this HB 934 Voter ID will be coming voer for a vote and u want them to vote "YAH' and get this bill passed.

Don't let DOJ discourage u from getting this passed!!!  The laws they are apply to Texas will not hold up in Pennsylvania . I'm not saying it will not go to court BUT the supreme court has already upheld voter ID. LET'S GET IT PASSED!!!!!!!!!!

[DENNY BAUM]

Keep us posted--please. Since, obviously, y'all are not a Southern state "with a history" of voter discrimination, I'm wondering what commie/marxist holder will come up with to negate the will of the people of your Great State.