E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe Justice Department on Monday blocked enforcement of the voter identification law which Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed last spring, contending that it would have a discriminatory impact on Latino voters.
In a letter to Texas Director of Elections Keith Ingram, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said that “according to the state’s own data, a Hispanic registered voter is at least 46.5 percent, and potentially 120.0 percent, more likely than a non-Hispanic registered voter” to lack either a driver’s license or a state-issued identification card, which would be required to vote.
Ralph Barrera / AP
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is interviewed in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012.
Under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Texas is one of nine states that is required to get pre-approval from the Justice Department or from a federal judge prior to implementing any change in voting procures.
In his letter Monday, Perez also argued that under the Texas law, in order to get a state-issued voter identification card, a voter would need to provide two pieces of secondary identification, or one piece of secondary identification and two supporting documents. “If a voter does not possess any of these documents, the least expensive option will be to spend $22 on a copy of the voter’s birth certificate,” he said. This, Perez said, would impose a burden on Hispanic voters because many have incomes below the federal poverty line.
The Justice Department decision on Monday was expected since it had blocked a similar law in South Carolina, another state also covered by section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
It is not the end of the battle over voter ID in the Lone Star State.
In January, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked a federal court in Washington to allow Texas to use its photo ID law. That court has yet to issue a ruling.
Abbott argued that even if the Justice Department contends that the Texas law has the effect of limiting the voting rights of those who do not possess a government-issued photo identification, “it does not do so on account of their race or color -- it does so on account of their decision not to obtain the identification that the State offers free of charge.”
Abbott also argued that other states, such as Indiana, Kansas, and Wisconsin, “have been able to enact and enforce similar laws without interference” from the Justice Department. “Yet Texas is denied that ability to implement election-fraud prevention laws. This creates a two-tracked system of sovereignty,” in which some states can enforce their photo-identification requirements, but Texas cannot, “even though all of these state laws comply with the Constitution.”
Leave a Comment:
Simple,,,,,,No Republicans, You cannot fix political races by making it harder for minorities to vote, PERIOD
Women,,,,,,Democrats had to FIGHT for your right to vote 100 years ago
Blacks,,,,,,,,Democrats had to FIGHT for your right to vote 50 years ago
Hispanics,,,Democrats had to FIGHT for your right to vote NOW
Help em out, Register to vote and VOTE!!!!!
SIMPLY IDIOTIC; requiring ID doesnt make it hared for anybody to vote. your race pandering is simply disgusting
dems opposed the civil rights law; Jim Crow was a Democrat. you HAD to be a Democrat to join the KKK. read a book; or just stop lying and admit historical realities
Asians, Trust me,,,,,,,,,,,Your next
REGISTER and VOTE
dems found somebody else to pander to? of course; the Azz Party cant survive without it.
yes register and vote; even if you're illegal. we wont ask you for an ID; we dont want to offend you
The photo id's are free to low income people.
They have 8 months to get them
There are only two reasons why anyone would be against them, either you intend to vote fraudulently or you expect to benefit from the a fraudulent vote.
Bo, you need to review your history text book. Lyndon Johnson had to THREATEN Democrats to get the Civil Rights Act passed. It was Eisenhower who had first proposed that same bill and the Democrats voted it down. So don't go around acting like the Democrats were front and center fighting for rights. What the Dems have down is to make poor minorities dependent on the system. Welfare is the worst thing that has happened. It keeps them "down on the plantation" , under control.
Dirt, the democrats who didn't like the civil rights bill joined the GOP and took their attitudes with them, it's the GOP who is acting like southern democrats now.
Wade, look closely at the votes on the Civil Rights Act. A higher percentage of Republicans voted FOR it than Democrats.
Yes because the GOP was moderate to left of center then Mike. I am a center left Lincoln republican. Not a southern democrat in R.I.N.O.'s clothing. I know what kind of man Lincoln was, I know the history of the GOP.
Bo you can't play the race card with Asians they all want to be the rich republican.
Bo up there seems to an out of work, maybe a construction worker, maybe painter, obvious liberal who gleens his mantra spewing from other liberals post, unable to think for himself. Really Bo, you really expect those to get behind your pathetic posts, claiming "righteous indignation" for ALL races, when everyone here liberals or conservatives knows this is about trying to allow "illegals" the right to vote? Were all suppose to march behind you with our fist clenched and held high yelling, "power to the people"? Really? Its not like a real "elephant in the room", nor is this the 60's dude, and "the MAN is trying to keep the races under control. Yeah DUDE, we already know this NAtion is made up of people of all colors and most of them, at least the ones here that didn't sneek across the border, already have some form of LEGAL identification. Whether you drive a car, purchase items with a credit card, cash a check, ect ...all of us have some form of identification. I am sure you need to show your Bo to make purchases at the liquor store. 8 months for those citizens of this Nation who are living within our borders, LEGALLY, to make sure that those who are participating in the privalege of casting their vote, are American citizens. So put your old, tired, dog earred,torn weather beaten, recycled, crusty, dead and stinking, deck of race cards away.................its not the 60's.......its 2012
Isn't it ironic that Texas, a "red" state, must obtain approval from a Democratic Justice Dept. to ensure that abuses which occurred under Democrats isn't repeated!
If ALL voter ID laws are so bad, Dems, why hasn't the JD sued Rhode Island? Couldn't possibly be because RI is a "blue" state, could it?
If ALL voter ID laws are so bad, why hasn't the JD sued every single one of the 31 states that have those laws?
If ALL voter ID laws are so bad, why has the SC upheld the law passed in Indiana, and not strictly along party lines, either?
Mike liberal eastern Yankees will always attack Texas we are used to it and will fight for our rights as we always have. It will cost every citizen in Texas money including the poor they are crying about. Do they really care? I doubt it. They only care about the poor when they can use them. We don't have an income tax so these things are paid with sales taxes on everything except nutricious foods not sold hot ready to eat. The poor will pay as well as everyone else.
To those people always saying that voter fraud is so low as to be almost non-existent, and continually asking for proof of voter fraus, please answer this: Please show me some instances in the last 25 years of a person who is eligible to vote, registered properly, showing up to vote, and being DENIED the right to vote.
Isn't it a little racist to assume that minorities aren't smart enough to figure out how to get an ID? I mean, a lot of you liberals are always talking about those Southern, red-neck, uneducated hicks and yet THEY"RE smart enough to figure out how to get an ID and minorities aren't?
As late as the early 60's there were poll taxes and literacy tests. I don't care about the time frame mike. That it happened at all in my life time is bad enough, yes I am 52. Political parties rig elections. Black men and women could not vote in the deep south because southern democrats, future R.I.N.O.'s set up hurdles no black person could over come. The problem is not illegal voters, that is just a smoke screen to justify making it harder to vote, when the GOP itself is the problem. So no I am not going answer the questions you asked.
Won't, or can't? Really? Do you mean that a bunch of white, skin-head,missing-teeth,uneducated, gun-toting, Bible-thumping, racist rednecks are somehow smart enough to figure out how to get ID, and minorities and Dems aren't? Wow! That is hilarious!
Since you won't answer all my questions, how about just one. Show me some instance in the last 25 years where a citizen in good legal standing, who has already registered, has been DENIED the right to vote.
I bet there will be a lot of silence from the lefties on that!
Chirp.....chirp......chirp.........just as I suspected and expected. Isn't it funny how inconvenient it turns out to be for those poor, maligned, disenfranchised voters to get an ID and yet somehow they can find their way to a polling station..... Amazing!
Gee Wade, the Dems sure must have rigged lots of elections in the South, since before the Civil Rights Act passed, the South was strongly Democratic. In fact----they disenfranchised so many voters that it took an act of Congress to stop them! Doesn't look too good for your home team, huh?
With a little help from Holder everything will be A OK...
"DOT"com/nightly-news/46725386/#46724699
You missed my point Mike or ignored it completely. 1860 to 1960 southern democrats act like today's GOP. Figure 1 election cycle per 4 years, and that is 25 elections. After 1960 these same southern democrats join the GOP. It is the GOP who is the problem this year. If you are not smart enough to connect the dots here, I have no more interest in reading your posts.
Wade how can FREE be a poll tax. The sixties are gone man join the modern world. Stop singing We Shall Overcome that will get you arrested today.
Funny how the libs will cry all day and night 'show me where voter fraud swung an election' and yet can not name one instance in the last 25 years where someone was not allowed to vote. How do you know if all votes are from legal voters if you don't check? It is as silly as the government saying XX numbers of illegals entered the country last year. What? They can count them but they can't stop them? LOL!
I can name several instances where people weren't allowed to vote. Many people in Florida were not allowed to vote when several polls were closed in districts that just happened to be favorable to Janet Reno--by some strange happening, they closed two hours early, making sure working people could not vote. Also, in Florida in 2000, several mostly minority districts had an awful lot of police working in them, holding people aside for 'law enforcement' purposes till it was too late for them to vote, and only then acknowledging that 'oops, guess you're not a wanted felon after all'.
In Ohio in 2004, the voting machines were 'adjusted' in districts that didn't have a paper backup to give the Republicans a 10% dividend (districts that did have a paper backup tended to return the same as the exit polls). But I guess voter fraud to help a Republican is OK.
Janet Reno? You mean the attorney general nominated by Democrat Bill Clinton? That Janet Reno? How would not letting minorities vote help a Democrat? Are you talking about her unsuccessful run for Florida governor? Because if you are, she lost THAT in the Democratic primary, something the GOP had nothing to do with. Next!
Why don't you answer what I asked in #55?
S/he did, you just employed selective reading skills to ignore her/his answer.
Gee, one of 9 states that has to get the Feds or a Fed court involved before they can change their voter laws. Now I wonder why that is? 41 states in the country that don't have to have the Feds approve their election laws. Couldn't have anything to do with rascist pricks that've used every frigging thing in the book from poll taxes(That'll be 29.99...but wait! You also get a fetching collection of busted bones with that) to literacy laws(What do you mean you can't read Ovid in the original? Get out of here!) to stop minorities from voting now could it? And you numbnuts are still trying. You friggers haven't learned jackshjt. roflmao
JC---yes, Texas, a "red' state, must now get approval from a Democratic Department of Justice to make any changes in their voting laws to ensure that the abuses carried out under Democrats isn't repeated. The 'RACIST PRICKS" you are talking about are DEMOCRATS! If you remember correctly, the South was strongly Democratic until AFTER the Civil Rights Act passed, with a higher percentage of GOP votes for it than Democratic votes.
Show me one single example from the last 25 years where someone who was a legal citizen, was registered, tried to vote and could not. Just one!
While you are at it, JC, why don't you just try to answer some of the questions I asked in #55.
Don't mind Mike he is just rewriting history.
Gee the civil war was 100 years ago and the civil rights act was 47 years ago. Just how many of those guilty parties do you think still control things? How many of them are even alive? So who are you punishing? If you did your job overseeing Texas elections so we wouldn't have elections after the terms of office for the jobs run out we might be willing to accept daddy spank. But you can't even get it right. All our municiple offices and school board officers terms of office run out before you are going to let us have an election to fill them. If you must oversee then you have a responsibility to do so in such a way that you do not detrimentally affect the citizens of the state. BTW I was a member of the NAACP 68-71.
Poll taxes have been judged to be unconstitutional by the (former, less corrupt) Supreme Court. Making people cough up $$$ for ID is a defacto poll tax. (and so are literacy requirements, considering the 'flexibility' of usage they've had in the past).
So far Texas is still part of this country (sad to say). And if they secede, just think how much $$$ we'll save in disaster relief and stimulus funds to help them balance their sad little budget.
Sorry--you have your facts wrong. In Texas, you may recieve an ID for voting purposes for free if you can not afford one. Keep bashing Texas, buddy. Think how much higher the nation's unemployment rate would be without Texas. Think of where you would refine much of the oil. Think of where you would get some of your natural gas used for heating. Think where you would get much of your cotton, beef, and vegetables/produce. Think of where you would get a lot of seafood. Texas will not secede.
Excessive--it is rather humorous how the party 'for the poor and minority people" constantly assume that they can not obtain ID, and yet millions of uneducated, Southern rednecks are somehow smart enough to figure out how to get an ID. Are the poor minorities in Rhode Island smarter than those elsewhere? Because I haven't heard about the JD sueing them over their voter ID law, which just happened to be passed by a Democratic State House.
We may not secede but it sure seems sometimes they are trying to kick us out. I wonder where they would be if we pulled out our GNP from that of the US. Would the US even qualify for G8 status?
This is just another failure to execute and uphold the law. If these people don't want to live by the law then leave. Just about everything you can think of requires you to produce some form of id. Whats the big deal ? If you are a legal resident then prove it by showing your id. This POS of a president and ag holder are not willing to do anything but change laws to whatever favors them. obama is nothing but a POS.
B Stevens, federal law trumps state law any day. Texas must by federal law get permission to change voter registration laws. So I invite Rick Perry to follow your advice and resign.
Laws like collective bargaining? Laws on legally binding contracts?
Then, we get:
Yes, no problem, everyone agrees. So, lets test your thoughts there.
Birth Certificate- Nope, not good enough.
Social Security I.D.- Nope, not good enough.
Student I.D.- Nope, not good enough.
Military I.D.- Nope, not good enough.
Employer I.D.- Nope, not good enough.
What I.D. is required? The one where you must pay the government money to get. So, the government extorts you out of your money because nobody can issue the proper I.D. needed to vote except the state GOVERNMENT. You know, for a party fixated on less government in their rhetoric, they don't practice it much.
Then we get:
Wow, this Obama guy is uncontrollable! Now, he has the ability to change laws on his own to whatever suits him! Even Texas Voter I.D. law was changed by the president... somehow.
I am being facetious here but I'm trying to convey the rational given. Hopefully, it points out the hypocrisy here. "No Big Government!" and "Make Government force people to buy the government's I.D." is a contradiction.
Get it?
No Wade we are just going to sue the federal government in its own courts> We want equal voters rights with the citizens of Indiana. I want to hear Holder explain how the same law that is constitutional SCOTUS says so in Indiana is unconstitutional in Texas. Aren't you people getting tired of spending all this federal money suing one of your own states? We must have a resident Attorney in Washington by now with all the cases working their ways through the courts.
lonereb, So that’s what the new bubble labeled T.P.L.E.P. on the D.O.J.’s org chart is all about…
Texas Projects Lawyer Employment Program ;-)
Ok. Show me the facts. Man it's so funny when you dems open your mouths.
Texas trying to elimanate the rights of non-Republicans?! say it ain't so! Give me a break.If its anti-progress,anti-humane,anti-educational,anti-common sense Texas will be standing proudly behind it
It’s not just Texas. Thirty-one states require all voters to show ID before voting at the polls. In 15 of these, the ID must include a photo of the voter; in the remaining 16, non-photo forms of ID are acceptable.
Eric Holder, its ABOUT TIME!
Funny how all the Dem / Lib idiots on this site are claiming there is No Fraudulent voting thus no need for Voter ID's. Yet less than 12 years ago, and then again less than 8 years ago they were screaming that Bush stole an election .....TWICE!!! Then they wanted to call him dumb....Now let me get this straight, a Dumb Bush steals the election from the "highly itellectual and brilliant" libs, and HE IS DUMB???? Duhhhhhh.....?????
The head of the Federal government is a dyed in the wool Chicago politician. He knows better than anyone else you can't get the dead vote out if you have those nasty voter ID laws.
Essentially all human beings are racists, myself included. Some degree of prejudice is normal. When people deny that they are racists it's the same as an alcoholic denying they have a drinking problem. I try very hard not to let racist impulses control me. The worst kind of racist is the one who will not admit to being one or a bigot.
That being said I don't think the root of the problem is just because O'bama is black man. The root of the problem is a mind set that says there is only one way to live. All other ways are sinful and hateful to God. There is no room for disagreement with some people. "You either agree with me or you are stupid, and I don't have to treat you with respect."
I try very hard to attack the position and not the individual. I slip from time to time and bite back hard after I have been attacked or I see a particularly brazen attack. Yes I see red. I admit it. It's hard to take the high road all the time when I am met with attack after attack.
Do you think you are going to win any over, by calling them stupid, or by implying that they are lazy and hinting they are retarded for not agreeing with you. I know that liberal and moderate posters have been driven to that too. All this does lead to heated exchanges that get nothing done.
It's possible to disagree civilly. It's possible to disagree and be friends. I cannot promise not bite figuratively if I am pushed too far. I do know biting words do not advance a discussion.