Every vote counts. No matter how superfluous one single ballot may seem, the importance to exercise one’s right to vote is essential to the integrity of our country’s quality of life. In the end, if someone chooses to remain silent, no one can force that person to vote, but it’s when these rights to do so are stepped on that their voice must be heard.
On Monday, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) of the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) joined the fight against legislation that would impose unreasonable and occasionally unattainable hurdles for minority voters in the state of Texas. The federal suit hopes to block the voter photo ID requirement under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and 14th and 15th Amendments.
“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy. Unfortunately, we continue to find ourselves in federal court defending this most basic right against Texas’ leadership,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, chairman of MALC, in a press conference on Monday. “Multiple courts have ruled that Texas has expressed a pattern of discrimination towards its growing minority demographic – from its cumbersome voter identification requirements to its penchant for drawing intentionally discriminatory legislative maps – and I expect that the courts will once again side with Texas voters over hyper-partisan lawmakers.”
This narrow set of documents will greatly inhibit minority voters without one of the six valid forms of photo ID, Fischer said in a phone interview. There are roughly 795,000 registered voters in Texas, 38 percent of which are Latino, without the proper identification required to vote. Fischer, along with the Texas NAACP and Justice Department, hope to fight the law and put an end to the Republican-controlled legislature.
In Fischer’s eyes, there’s little that can be done if the law stands, despite the admirable efforts of Steve McGraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). “His hands are tied,” Fischer said. “It’s a matter of responsibility vs resources.” With little to no budget or staff power, it’s virtually impossible for the DPS to install the necessary offices where registered voters can acquire the required identification to cast their ballots.
“There are over 80 counties without a DPS office, which makes up almost a third of Texas,” Fischer said. “Many voters have to drive over 200 miles to get their free certificates, which can impose an even greater burden for the elderly and voters with disabilities.” Other valid forms of identification, such as birth certificates or drivers licenses, cost money. Complete lack of income isn’t at the root of their hesitance to obtain such documents, but the hassle of the extra cost can make the importance of voting frivolous. If the State’s Voter ID law is overturned, perhaps voting will be more feasible for the 795,000 registered voters currently unable to practice their basic right.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott defends the law as necessary to ensure fair voting, which Fischer deems counterintuitive. “There are very few and almost zero cases of voter fraud,” he said. “His motive is not to protect the integrity of elections,” but rather inhibit voters who may jeopardize his party’s agenda.
“As our state’s top legal official, Attorney General Abbott should be working with minority communities, not against us, to ensure that the voting process is straightforward and non-partisan,” Fischer said in a press release.
“Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a drivers license or a personal identification card,” Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a letter to the Texas state government. “And that disparity is statistically significant.”
According to The New York Times, Texas has roughly 12.8 million registered voters, 2.8 million of which are Hispanic. Two sets of data comparing its voter rolls with a list of people who had valid state-issued photo identification cards in September and January of last year revealed that Hispanic voters were 46.5 percent to 120 percent more likely to lack such identification than were non-Hispanics.
Despite heavy opposition, Fischer remains optimistic that the suit will succeed and the legislation will be overturned. “I’m proud of my legal team,” he said. “We’re working with the top experts in proving racial discrimination who will use their level of knowledge and experience to prove that [the photo ID law] will disenfranchise and discriminate minority voters.”
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
