Supreme Court Blocks Wisconsin and Texas Voter ID Law, Four States Without ID Laws Heading Into Elections
Voter ID Laws have been a divisive political issue and it does not seem to be letting up any time soon. The Inquisitr reported a little over a week ago that a U.S. Court Of Appeals overturned a previous ruling that allowed North Carolina’s Voter ID Law to stand as is.
“According to Reuters, a 2-1 vote struck down two key provisions Wednesday but the totality of the law remained intact. The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that same-day voting and voting ‘outside of normal precincts’ should be reinstated into law, as North Carolina’s 2013 Voter ID Law removed those options from the law at that time. The majority opinion agreed with Mr. Holder.”
Attorney General Eric Holder had suggested, while lashing out at North Carolina, that Texas was in his cross hairs with a planned law suit. It would appear, one year later, that Attorney General Holder prevailed. The Wallstreet Journal reports that it was precisely on the basis Mr. Holder opened the lawsuit for, that the court struck down the law.
Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of the U.S. Court of the Southern District of Texas ruled that the Voter ID Law “unfairly burdened those who didn’t already have the types of identification required.” He also ruled against the law because he felt it did not “afford the time and money” to make the travel needed to get IDs.
The judge likened the Voter ID Law to a “poll tax,” meant to disenfranchise minority voters. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund praised the decision, under the opinion that there was racial animus, as A.G. Holder suggested prior.
“Texas failed to identify a single instance of in-person voter fraud—the purported justification for Texas’ photo ID law.The Court today effectively ruled that racial discrimination simply cannot spread to the ballot box.”
In the case of the Wisconsin version of the Voter ID laws, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of tabling the law, but no date was suggested as to when the law would receive further review. The Wisconsin ID law has been on a “pinball” like trajectory, as suggested by official in Wisconsin, according to the New York Times.
The law was passed by a Republican majority in Wisconsin in 2011. Not long after, it was struck down by a federal judge in Milwaukee, just after the 2012 primary election. Persuasion by the ACLU and affiliated groups attributed to this, according to Huffington Post.
However, on Monday, a Chicago appeals court ruled in favor of allowing the law to be temporarily instated. The reason for the hold up appeared to be a split down the middle 5-5 decision on the Wisconsin law. According to the five dissenting judges, it was a matter of tardiness of the laws most recent reenactment, reports The New York Times.
“It is simply impossible, as a matter of common sense and of logistics, that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters will both learn about the need for photo identification and obtain the requisite identification in the next 36 days.”
The challengers asked the supreme court to block the law because it would “virtually guarantee chaos,” suggesting that Wisconsin could not adequately train poll workers and issue the IDs necessary.
Texas and Wisconsin are now added to the list with Ohio and North Carolina for states that will not need to show photo ID at the polls come these 2014 Midterm elections.
What are your thoughts? Is “voter fraud” real? Are Voter ID Laws meant to harm minorities, or is this all just political maneuvering for votes?
Leave your comments below.
