What the three-judge panel wrote today in rejecting the state’s requirement that all Texas voters have to bring a form of government-issued identification in order to cast a ballot:
Everything Texas has submitted as affirmative evidence is unpersuasive, invalid, or both. Moreover, uncontested record evidence conclusively shows that the implicit costs of obtaining SB 14-qualifying ID will fall most heavily on the poor and that a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty. We therefore conclude that SB 14 is likely to lead to “retrogression in the position of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.”
The state attorney general already says he’ll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Â Here’s the fun fact that makes it difficult to argue that this law won’t unfairly impact the poor:
About 80 Texas counties have no DPS driver’s license office, which could make it difficult for Texans without a driver’s license to get a Voter ID card. Low income neighborhoods in metro areas also have few DPS offices.
So nearly a third of the state’s counties don’t have a place where voters could obtain this ID? How can we then reasonably expect all eligible voters to fulfill this requirement? Passports are expensive.
