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  1. #1
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Texas voter ID law applies for November elections, federal appeals court says

    Texas voter ID law applies for November elections, federal appeals court says

    Opponents say Texas has issued fewer than 300 free voter IDs since the law took effect, while Georgia has issued 2,200 under a program with more robust outreach.
    Dallas News
    Eric Gay/The Associated Press



    Elections officials at an Austin polling place checked a voter's photo identification during early voting in February.

    By JIM VERTUNO
    The Associated Press
    Published: 14 October 2014 04:27 PM
    Updated: 15 October 2014 12:24 AM

    AUSTIN — A federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily reinstated Texas’ voter ID law, which the U.S. Justice Department had condemned as the state’s latest means of suppressing minority voter turnout.

    The ruling by a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows the law to be used in the November election, despite a lower judge’s ruling that the law is unconstitutional. The 5th Circuit did not rule on the law’s merits; instead, it determined that it’s too late to change the rules for the election.

    The judge said the Supreme Court has repeatedly told courts to be cautious about late-hour interruptions of elections. Early voting starts Oct. 20.

    “It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the state to adequately train its 25,000 polling workers at 8,000 polling places” in time for the start of early voting, the appeals court wrote.

    While some voters may be harmed, the greater harm would come in potentially disrupting an election statewide, the court said.

    The NAACP Legal Defense Fund promised a quick appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The ruling represents a temporary but key victory for Republican-backed photo ID measures enacted across the U.S. in recent years. Last week’s ruling from U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos — an appointee of President Barack Obama who likened the law to a poll tax designed to dissuade minorities from voting — remains under appeal.

    The Texas law, considered the toughest of its kind in the nation, requires that an estimated 13.6 million registered voters show one of seven kinds of photo identification to cast a ballot. The Justice Department says more than 600,000 of those voters, mostly blacks and Hispanics, lack eligible identification.

    Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who had sought an emergency ruling from the conservative-leaning appeals court, is on the ballot as the GOP nominee for governor.

    Abbott spokeswoman Lauren Bean called Tuesday’s ruling “the right choice to avoid voter confusion.”

    A Justice Department spokeswoman said the agency was reviewing the opinion and declined immediate comment.

    Texas Democrats decried the ruling.

    “An intentionally discriminatory law should not be allowed to remain in effect,” said Texas Democrat Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa.

    Nineteen states have laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls. Courts across the country have knocked down challenges, including at the Supreme Court.

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder brought the weight of his office into Texas after the Supreme Court last year struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, which had prevented the state from enacting its voter ID law.

    The full Voting Rights Act had blocked Texas and eight other states with histories of discrimination from changing election laws without permission from the Justice Department or a federal court. Holder vowed to wring whatever protections he could from the weakened version, and made Texas a first target.

    Abbott, who is favored to win against Democrat Wendy Davis to replace Rick Perry as governor, said the law has support from minorities and whites alike. His office also pointed to states such as Georgia and Indiana, where similar measures have been upheld.

    But opponents slammed Texas’ law as far more discriminatory. College student IDs aren’t acceptable, but concealed handgun licenses are. Free IDs offered by the state require a birth certificate that costs as little as $3, but the Justice Department argued that traveling to get those documents imposes a burden on poor minorities.

    Opponents say Texas has issued fewer than 300 free voter IDs since the law took effect, while Georgia has issued 2,200 under a program with more robust outreach.

    Davis criticized Abbott for continuing to support a law that a judge ruled discriminatory.

    “It’s nothing more than a ‘poll tax,’ which means democracy and all Texans lose,” Davis said.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state...eals-court.ece
    Last edited by HAPPY2BME; 10-16-2014 at 09:31 AM.
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    Liberals Lose Their Minds Over Texas Voter ID Requirements: “Discriminatory Law” http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/10/li...iminatory-law/




    Liberals Lose Their Minds Over Texas Voter ID Requirements: “Discriminatory Law” - Freedom Outpost
    freedomoutpost.com
    Liberals Lose Their Minds Over Texas Voter ID Requirements: Discriminatory Law










    Liberals Lose Their Minds Over Texas Voter ID Requirements: “Discriminatory Law”


    Mac Slavo 1 hour ago


    Last week the U.S. Supreme Court gave Texas the go-ahead to enforce voter identification laws at the polls. The court rejected an emergency request from the Justice Department and civil rights group to overturn the law with a majority of Justices on the court siding with Texas.

    The move has liberals all over the country up in arms because the legislation opens the door for other states to move in lockstep with Texas.
    Though the majority did not issue a statement, a dissenting opinion from liberal judges that included Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, says that the law is purposefully discriminatory.
    “The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.”
    At the Huffington Post, a liberal hotbed of progressive ideas, readers took to their keyboards to show their outrage over the new law.
    The law, which allows for seven (7) different methods of identification at the polls, has been attacked, among other things, as an attempt to instill white rule over minorities:
    College ID cards are not considered legitimate identification, while a concealed carry handgun licenses have been approved. Apparently, some liberal commentators don’t realize that a non-citizen can acquire a college ID if they attend school in the United States. A concealed handgun license however, requires a detailed background check… and citizenship, though some (LEGAL) resident aliens can acquire a license under certain guidelines:
    We agree, it’s certainly voter suppression if you are not a legal resident of the United States of America, and rightfully so.
    And, of course, there’re those who claim this is a “poll tax” because it costs money to obtain an identification card to vote.
    As it turns out, the aforementioned Texas Election Identification Certificate is free of charge, but yes, the poor and old do need to travel for it, just like they might have to travel to actually vote, go to the grocery store, seek health care or take money out of their bank.
    And then there’s this guy, who suggests that this is about men versus women, because, well… we’re not really sure why:
    And, of course, no liberal comment thread is complete without accusations of racism against those who want to ensure the legitimacy of the electoral process:

    Now that you’ve read the blathering on about how this law is racist and disenfranchises poor people who apparently do not require identification to seek welfare, health care, food stamps or other government services, here are the facts.
    These are the acceptable forms of identification at Texas polling stations. A precursory look at the list and you’ll realize that 99.9% of Americans of voting age have to have at least one of these to function on a daily basis:

    • Texas driver license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
    • Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
    • Texas personal identification card issued by DPS
    • Texas concealed handgun license issued by DPS
    • United States military identification card containing the person’s photograph
    • United States citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph
    • United States passport

    And for those who complain of a polling tax, it turns out that the State of Texas has a web site page dedicated specifically for people who do not have the money to pay for an identification card.
    In addition to the scores of comments claiming racism, poll taxing and other ridiculous arguments against the ID requirement, there were others who understood the purpose of the law, especially in a state that has seen illegal immigration skyrocket:
    User Maggie Lin pretty much sums it up:
    What do you think? Are voter ID laws designed to suppress the vote of poor people and minorities?

    Or, is an identification requirement, given the millions of illegal immigrants making their way into the United States, a necessity in order to ensure the legitimacy of our elections?
    Yes, we know, those are loaded questions.

    Source

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    Last edited by kathyet2; 10-21-2014 at 10:27 AM.

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