Voter Suppression

Another Loss for Voter Suppressionists

More good news on the voting rights front.

A three judge panel in Washington D.C. has rejected the Texas voter ID law signed by Rick Perry last year and concluded that it would irreparably harm the rights of the poor.

A federal court in Washington D.C. on Thursday rejected a Texas law requiring voters to show certain types of photographic identification in order to cast a ballot. The three-judge panel found that the law imposes “strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor,” pointing out that racial minorities are more likely to live in poverty. [...]

“That law will almost certainly have retrogressive effect: it imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor, and racial minorities in Texas are disproportionately likely to live in poverty. And crucially, the Texas legislature defeated several amendments that could have made this a far closer case.”

Again, this law probably would not have changed the outcome of this year's election, but it very well could have altered the outcome of future presidential elections.

If it seems as though these laws are regularly being framed as intentionally discriminatory, it's because they are. It's the only reason they exist. They exist to disenfranchise voters who will probably vote for "that one."