Over
the last year, laws that advocates say place unnecessary burdens on
voters have advanced across the country. But a law in Texas is causing
a particular stir due to its potential to place the harshest burdens on
the youngest voters. A lawsuit challenging it that was filed last year
goes to trial Sept. 2.
“We
work to engage people—young people—in this process,” said Christina
Sanders, state director of the Texas League of Young Voters, which is
among the plaintiffs in an upcoming voter identification case in the
state. “The hurdles these laws create makes it more difficult for us to
engage.”
“More than cases of apathy, it becomes a case of disenfranchisement,”
she added.
|
What utterly transparent hogwash. What are these hurdles Texas
college students are so worried about? |
The state has said the ID requirement is an effort to prevent in-person
voter fraud. In a 2013 editorial, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
said requiring voters to present government issued IDs is “the first
step in the process is to ensure that only those that are legally
allowed to vote actually vote.” He called the efforts to block the law
misguided, noting that some 83% of adults and 84% of registered voters
support voter ID laws, according to a 2013 McClatchy-Marist poll.
“To those that oppose voter ID laws, how about instead of trying to
incite racial violence and protests, you walk the walk and help those
you believe to be poor or disenfranchised without photo ID to acquire a
photo ID,” Abbott said.
Under the law, seven forms of identification are accepted at Texas
polling stations, among them state drivers’ licenses and identification
cards, election identification certificates, military IDs, passports,
citizenship documents with photos, and concealed handgun licenses. And
noticeably absent from that list: student identification cards.
