The Federal Appeals court has ruled strict Texas ID voting laws violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and discriminates African American and Hispanic individuals. For over half a decade, court battles have been fought to dismiss the ID voting law, but it still remains in Texas legislation. The fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday the ID voting law is illegal and provides limitations for minorities to legally vote. Currently, more than 600,000 Texan minorities can acquire a legal handgun license without a required legal ID, but not a student ID in 2014 court ruling. Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos has publicly stated that the 2014 law makes it impossible for certain Hispanic and African American individuals to vote.
Other politicians and judges are split on the appeals court decision, claiming that the law shouldn’t be removed completely, but needs to be “softened”. Politicians against the appeals court ruling claim that Texans can sign an affidavit to vote if they do not provide an ID at the voter’s booth. Judge Ramos was assigned to decide a compromise between the politicians who supported the ID voting law and the non-supporters. Judge Ramos believes the ID voting law should be tossed out of Texas legislation, but it still hasn’t been removed from legislation due to its continued support to stop identify theft at the voting polls.
The ID voting law was passed by Republican politicians in 2011 and was blocked the next year under Section Five of the Voting Rights Act. After the 2013 Shelby County vs. Holder Supreme Court case, the court ruled that the ID voting law didn’t violate the Section Five Clause. Texas loyally followed the Supreme Court’s ruling and kept voters who didn’t have a State required ID from voting in the 2014 elections. Politicians against the ID voting law remarked that the Appeals court ruling was a win for all Texas voters.
