Tag Archives: voter ID

Poli Sci profs against voter ID

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Rice political science professor Mark Jones writes an op-ed in the Chron that does a thorough job of dissecting Texas’ contentious voter ID law. Nearly one out of every three Texas counties lacks an operational DPS office, and no office … Continue reading →

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Voter ID trial wraps up

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

I didn’t follow the day to day reports from the voter ID preclearance trial, mostly because there wasn’t anything in the testimony that was truly unexpected. Lots of numbers, some of questionable provenance, were presented. The state continued to claim … Continue reading →

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Voter ID trial, day one

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

And they’re off, with the state bringing the funny math as part of its case. A Justice Department lawyer, Elizabeth Westfall, argued that the law has the potential to prevent 1.4 million Texans from voting who are eligible but lack … Continue reading →

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Voter ID trial starts today

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Another big lawsuit in a year that’s seen plenty of them. The decades-old legal battle between states’ rights and civil rights returns to a familiar venue – a federal courtroom – on Monday as lawyers for the state of Texas … Continue reading →

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Yet another voting-related lawsuit

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

I had completely forgotten about this. A federal judge in Galveston is to consider motions in a lawsuit filed by a Washington-based voters’ rights group that contends Texas laws make it illegally difficult to register voters. The group Voting for … Continue reading →

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You sure you’re registered?

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Your voter registration could get cancelled without you realizing what’s happening. More than 300,000 valid voters were notified they could be removed from Texas rolls from November 2008 to November 2010 – often because they were mistaken for someone else … Continue reading →

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Abbott gives on legislative privilege

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

About time. In an effort to move to trial more quickly, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has quietly dropped his opposition to the Department of Justice’s request to take depositions from state lawmakers in the voter identification case. In March, … Continue reading →

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A trio of trial updates

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Planned Parenthood versus Texas: A ruling affecting health care, including contraception, for some 130,000 low-income Texas women probably won’t come until late this year as Planned Parenthood and the state of Texas plan for mid-October oral arguments in their legal … Continue reading →

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Voter ID trial likely to be delayed

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

And if it is, it’s all the fault of the State of Texas. In another blow to advocates of Texas’ voter ID law, a federal district court ruled today that the law will likely not be in place by the … Continue reading →

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Delay in voter ID trial requested

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

From Michael Li: Intervenors in the Texas voter ID case asked the court today to delay the scheduled July 9 start of trial in the case, citing discovery delays by the State of Texas.  The intervenors said the delays had … Continue reading →

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Who testifies about voter ID?

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

That was the question before the federal court on Tuesday. U.S. Justice Department lawyers told a federal three-judge panel Tuesday that Texas legislators should not be shielded from testifying in a voter ID case. But lawyers for state Attorney General … Continue reading →

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Voter ID lawsuit action this week

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Tomorrow, the DC Court will hear “oral argument on the State of Texas’ request to block the depositions of 12 Republican legislators who were involved with the voter ID bill, including State Sen. Dan Patrick and state representatives Debbie Riddle … Continue reading →

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Examining the voter ID lie

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve complained quite a bit at how the media in Texas lazily reports the voter ID issue as a simple “he said/she said” dispute when a cursory examination of the facts shows how ridiculous the pro-voter ID case is, so … Continue reading →

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Why no ID?

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Grits asks an interesting question. Why do so many adult Texans lack ID? In part because 2 million drivers have had their drivers licenses revoked because of nonpayment of the Driver Responsibility Surcharge, which readers will recall is a stiff … Continue reading →

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Texas goes long on voter ID

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

From Michael Li: The State of Texas is seeking permission from the three-judge panel in the voter ID case to file an amended complaint that would directly challenge the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The amended … Continue reading →

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More on the feds’ rejection of the Texas voter ID law

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the Trib story. The U.S. Department of Justice has rejected Texas’ application for preclearance of its voter ID law, saying the state did not prove that the bill would not have a discriminatory effect on minority voters. “The department’s … Continue reading →

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DOJ refuses to preclear Texas voter ID law

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. I’m not in a position to do any analysis of this now – I’ll have something for tomorrow morning – but for now I wanted to note this development. The state will proceed with its lawsuit, so we … Continue reading →

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News flash: The voter ID law will do exactly what it was intended to do

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

And that is to make it harder to vote. Mostly for the poor, the elderly, college students, and minorities. This is a feature, not a bug. The state’s contested voter ID law could provoke widespread complications in the upcoming presidential … Continue reading →

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Why do we make it so hard to vote?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

News item: Many voter registrations around the country are outdated or incorrect. Some 24 million voter registrations in the United States contain significant errors, including about 1.8 million dead people still on the rolls and many more approved to vote … Continue reading →

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Meet the voter ID three judge panel

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, the state of Texas has filed a lawsuit in the DC District Federal Court – the same court that is hearing the preclearance lawsuit – to get the odious voter ID law precleared. Michael Li introduces us … Continue reading →

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Texas files suit to preclear voter ID

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

They’re a mighty busy bunch at the OAG these days. The Texas attorney general’s office today filed suit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to have the state’s controversial voter ID law implemented without further … Continue reading →

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SOS sends voter registration info to DOJ

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Took them long enough, not that I’m complaining. Two weeks after Texas’ voter ID law was scheduled to go into effect, the measure is back in the U.S. Department of Justice’s hands. The Texas secretary of state’s office on Thursday … Continue reading →

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A little schadenfreude to end the year

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our only Governor. Gov. Rick Perry was once again stumped on the stump Thursday, this time with a question about a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that threw out Texas’ anti-sodomy law. Perry, taking … Continue reading →

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DOJ refuses to preclear South Carolina voter ID law

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday rejected as discriminatory a South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The action by the department’s civil rights division, coupled with Attorney General Eric Holder’s call 10 … Continue reading →

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On voting rights

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Attorney General Eric Holder was in Austin last week to give a speech on voting rights and the things the Justice Department is doing to protect them. No, the location was not an accident. Giving his most expansive speech on … Continue reading →

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Still waiting on SCOTUS

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Responses to the State of Texas’ stay request for State House and State Senate elections were due Thursday. Responses to the stay request for Congressional elections, which was filed Wednesday, are due this morning. It’s not clear when SCOTUS will … Continue reading →

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DOJ defers again on voter ID

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

In addition to the interim maps, we got some more good news yesterday. Texas provided “incomplete” information that does not enable federal officials to determine whether their proposed voter ID law would be discriminatory, the Justice Department said in a … Continue reading →

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Election Day 2011

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I’m sure you already know this, but today is the day to vote if you haven’t done so already. For Harris County, you can find your polling place here. You do not need any more identification than you’ve always needed, … Continue reading →

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It’s not “he said, she said” if one of them is factually correct

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

This Chron story from Monday about a mishap at the County Clerk’s office really annoys me for what it doesn’t say. A manual being using to train election judges for next week’s elections contains inaccurate information, reflecting a new voter … Continue reading →

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News flash: Voter ID will mean fewer people can vote

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I know, I’m as shocked as you are. As many as a quarter of voters in some small Texas counties might not be able to cast ballots if the federal government allows the new state voter ID law to go … Continue reading →

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The SOS responds to DOJ on voter ID

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Two weeks ago, the Justice Department asked some questions about Texas’ voter ID law as a condition for preclearance. The Secretary of State has now given some answers, though they may not be what DOJ was looking for. Under section … Continue reading →

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DOJ says redistricting plans purposely discriminated

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Game on. The Justice Department said late Friday that based on their preliminary investigation, a congressional redistricting map signed into law by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry appears to have been “adopted, at least in part, for the purpose of … Continue reading →

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Justice Department urged to block voter ID law

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I’m all in on this. A coalition of civil rights groups is urging the Obama administration’s Justice Department to reject Texas’ voter-ID law, charging that the measure advocated by Rick Perry intentionally discriminates against black and Hispanic voters. The Legislature … Continue reading →

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Making it harder for veterans to vote

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Well done, Republicans. Ann McGeehan, director of the Secretary of State’s elections division, said last week at a seminar in Austin that photo ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are not acceptable forms of military ID … Continue reading →

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