Election Reform
Related: About this forumTexas enacts even more restrictive voter ID law to disenfranchise even more voters
The courts have so far found the voter ID laws in Texas unconstitutional. TX is appealing the decision and now in the meantime, they have enacted a law that is even more restrictive than the first one according the Brad Friedman.
"The polling place Photo ID voting restriction enacted by Republicans in Texas has been repeatedly found in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Most recently, late last year, a federal judge found, after a full trial on the merits of the law, that the restrictive statute "creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose." U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos went on to note in her 147-page ruling [PDF] that the law also "constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax."
"Based on evidence from the state examined at trial, the law could serve to disenfranchise as many as 600,000 already legally registered voters in the state, not to mention more than a million eligible voters in Texas over all.
"Naturally, Texas Republicans who currently run the state are appealing that ruling. Not because they have been able to demonstrate any actual "voter fraud" that might have been deterred by their restrictions, but because, with rapidly changing voter demographics in the Lone Star State, keeping legal voters (specifically, those that tend to lean towards Democrats) from being able to cast their otherwise legal vote has become a top priority for the GOP if they hope to keep their stranglehold on political power there in coming decades.
"With all of that in mind --- including the existing law having been found in violation of both federal law and the U.S. Constitution --- state Republicans are hoping to make the law even more restrictive, and last week in the state House, the GOP passed another law to make it even more difficult for certain people to vote..."
http://bradblog.com/?p=11182
randys1
(16,286 posts)Gothmog
(154,423 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)It just makes my guts churn to think of the psychopaths leading the psychotics & building on their paranoid fears.
I think Texas is due for some chemtrails. We ought to do aerial spraying of the whole state with Haloperidol (Haldol).
msongs
(70,170 posts)SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)Gothmog
(154,423 posts)There is a hearing scheduled in the state senate on Monday http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=HB1096 It has to get through committee and then voted on.