Supreme Court Allows Texas to Use Strict Voter ID Law in Coming Election

[spanone]

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Saturday allowed Texas to use its strict voter identification law in the November election. The court’s order, issued just after 5 a.m., was unsigned and contained no reasoning.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a six-page dissent saying the court’s action “risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the dissent.

The law, enacted in 2011, requires voters seeking to cast their ballots at the polls to present photo identification like a Texas driver’s or gun license, a military ID or a passport.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/us/supreme-court-upholds-texas-voter-id-law.html?_r=0

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Well with racism abolished years ago, that shouldn't be a problem, or

whatever Justice Roberts said .

[hollysmom]

2. this discriminates in so m,any ways, Blacks, hispanics, women, young.

why not just write the rule that you can only vote if you are an old white man.
Can you overthrow a state government?

[spanone]

3. my state of tennessee enlisted voter id laws and a current study shows it has had the desired effect

Voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee dropped 2012 turnout by over 100,000 votes

In response to a request from a group of Democratic senators, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office analyzed the effect of voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee on 2012 turnout. Their findings? Turnout dropped at least 1.9 percentage points in Kansas and 2.2 percentage points in Tennessee thanks to the laws. By our calculations, that's 122,000 fewer votes.

The 200-plus-page report looks at several issues related to laws aimed at tightening rules around voting. The GAO compiled detailed data on various demographic groups in states that changed their laws, reviewed past studies on the effects of new laws on turnout, and attempted to gather data on instances of voter fraud, the rationale usually provided for changing voting rules. Democrats counter that the laws are thinly veiled efforts to reduce the number of their supporters that vote, by adding additional obstacles to black and young voters.

The GAO report suggests that, intentional or not, that's what happened in Kansas and Tennessee. This chart summarizes what it found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Looking at three sets of data -- numbers from the United States Election Project, data from the states themselves, and Census data -- the GAO compared Kansas and Tennessee with Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware and Maine. The change in turnout in the latter four states is indicated with the black bars for each of the three datasets. The data for Kansas and Tennessee are lighter.

In short: The GAO found that turnout was at least 1.9 percentage points lower in 2012 in Kansas vs. 2008, and 2.2 percentage points lower in Tennessee thanks to their newly implemented voter ID laws. (The report, as you'd expect, has a full articulation of its methodology starting on p. 106, if you want to dive deep.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/09/gao-voter-id-laws-in-kansas-and-tennessee-dropped-2012-turnout-by-over-100000-votes/

[Gothmog]

4. The Texas Democratic Party and the DNC Voter Expansion Project need help getting people ids

The Texas Democratic Party and DNC Voter Expansion Project are looking for volunteers for Voter Id Assistant Program to help people get ids. http://act.txdemocrats.org/page/s/texas-voter-expansion-project I am volunteering with the voter id assistant program.