Effects of the Texas voter id/suppression law

[Gothmog]

The Houston paper has a very good article on the effects of the Texas voter suppression/id law. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-contested-voter-ID-law-could-shave-voter-3390155.php

Here is a great chart on the effects of this horrible law

[link:|

[Thinkingabout]

1. One of the most important rights we have is the right to vote

Voting is so very important. I was listening to a republican talking about how many dead people votes. Guess what, within a week I got a letter addressed to my step son which probably came from voter registeration and this young man passed away in 1988. He never registered to vote. Probably was registered by the republican register of voters. Has anyone ever come up with the votes made by dead people to see who those votes counted. I suspect most of the wrong doing is on republicans just like the fraud in Florida in 2000.

[Downwinder]

2. March 13, apply for Municipal and School Absentee ballots.

[Gothmog]

3. Satus Hearing next week in DC case on Texas voter id law

Here is a status hearing on Wednesday of next week in the Texas voter suppression/ID law. http://txredistricting.org/post/18951283096/texas-voter-id-returns-to-the-fore-next-week-with

Although DOJ hasn’t indicated its position, it’s likely we’ll know more before next Wednesday - or at least have a much better sense of where the department is.

So far, most observers are expecting that the department to reject the law.

The court also may make a decision at the status conference about a request by State Rep. Marc Veasey and other minority voters to intervene in the case. That decision had been put on hold pending DOJ’s preclearance determination since a decision by DOJ to preclear the law would moot the court case (a decision to preclear, unlike a decision not to preclear, is not challengeable).

I know that the Texas Democratic Party is looking for additional voters who will be adversly affected by this law to join into this case.

[sonias]

4. Thanks for the update Gothmog

Notice that its a huge impact in the urban areas and spikes the most in the border areas (Hidalgo 41%; El Paso 38%).

But that was the whole point of the republican voter suppression of course. Knock off a few percentage points from the urban communities and stop Latinos from voting. Because we all know that those communities tend to vote Democratic.

[Gothmog]

5. Senator Elllis cites Houston Chronical Article in letter to DOJ

The material in the Houston Chronical article is from the State of Texas' last attempt to provide data to the DOJ on the preclearance of the Texas voter id law. Senator Ellis sent a letter to the DOJ citing this data to urge the DOJ to formally object to SB14 http://txredistricting.org/

Mr. T. Christian Herren, Jr.
Chief, Voting Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Herren:

I write regarding the Section 5 preclearance of Texas’ Senate Bill 14 (82nd Legislature), and I once again respectfully request that the Department of Justice (DOJ) deny preclearance.

An article appearing in today’s Houston Chronicle, “Texas’ contested voter ID law could shave voter rolls,” points out that “with as many as 18 percent of all registered voters across Texas apparently lacking state government-issued photo IDs to match their voter registration cards,” implementation of Senate Bill 14 could have widespread negative consequences for the upcoming election and beyond. The article is attached for your review. It goes on to state that Senate Bill 14 will most heavily impact 20 of Texas’ Hispanic majority counties, although 19 percent of Harris County, which constitutes the majority of my Senate district, also may lack the required photo identification.

The Chronicle article is based on the data previously submitted by the State to the DOJ on January 12, 2012. As you know, the State’s letter laid out a number of reasons that the data, submitted in response to the DOJ request for further information on Senate Bill 14, fell short of fully answering the DOJ’s questions. What can be discerned from the State’s data, however, is highly troubling, as evidenced in today’s Chronicle article.

Regardless of the excuses for why the State fails to fully answer the DOJ’s question, it is clear that the State falls far short of meeting the standards set out in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. As outlined on the DOJ’s own website, Section 5 “requires proof that the proposed voting change does not deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group. If the jurisdiction is unable to prove the absence of such discrimination,” then the proposed change cannot receive preclearance and is legally unenforceable.

Again, given the State’s failure to prove that Senate Bill 14 has neither the purpose nor the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, I respectfully request that the DOJ deny preclearance of Senate Bill 14. We must not proceed recklessly with far-reaching electoral changes that could potentially disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of legal voters.

Sincerely,

Rodney Ellis

I have a strong feeling that the DOJ will be rejecting or objecting to the Texas voter suppression law next week

[sonias]

6. I hope so too - DOJ rejecting the voter suppression ID law

And kudos to Senator Elllis who is one of the longest working advocates on this issue. There is hardly anyone else you could think of that has worked each and every year on this issue every time it came up. Senator Ellis knows the power and the meaning of voting rights and what it took to win them. He's been a fearless defender for Texas voters.