Tribal ID doesn't count either.

Tribal ID doesn't count either.

In a ruling early last month, federal District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos blasted the state of Texas for its discriminatory voter ID law and issued an injunction against it. But then the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her and a majority on the Supreme Court confirmed the appeals court ruling, a decision that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg excoriated . Consequently, it's estimated that some 600,000 Texans don't have the right kind of ID to cast a ballot in the Lone Star state.

Texas officials say they've been working to ensure that everybody has the proper ID required by law. That law was blocked by the federal courts in 2011 under the Voting Rights Act that required several states and other jurisdictions, including Texas, to pre-clear any voting law changes because they had a long history of voter discrimination. But the ID was resurrected when the Supreme Court trashed the pre-clearance sections of the VRA in 2013.

As Zachary Roth reports, all that supposedly vigorous outreach since the law came into force 16 months ago had resulted by the end of August this year in just 279 new IDs being handed out. But that's no surprise. Disenfranchisement is a feature of the new law, not a bug. Here's Roth:



Lindsay Gonzales, 36, has an out-of-state driver’s license, which isn’t accepted under the ID law. Despite trying for months, she has been unable to navigate an astonishing bureaucratic thicket in time to get a Texas license she can use to vote. “I’m still a little bit in shock,” said Gonzales, who is white, well-educated, and politically engaged. “Because of all those barriers, the side effect is that I don’t get to participate in the democratic process. That’s something I care deeply about and I’m not going to be able to do it.” [...] Next to Gonzales sat Adam Alkhafaji, a student at the University of Houston, who turned 18 in September and was excited to vote for the first time. But to prove his residency and get a Texas ID, he needed a residential housing agreement, a birth certificate, and a Social Security card, none of which he had. Overwhelmed with school, he ran out of time. “It’s almost like a milestone in your life: You take your first steps, then you get your driver’s license, and then you exercise your right to vote,” Alkhafaji said. “I’m more than disappointed.” [...] Of course, the Texans who are typically affected are minorities. Catherine Overton, who is 70 and black, moved to Dallas from Las Vegas earlier this year. In a phone interview, she said she wasn’t told about the ID law when she registered to vote. When she went to the polls last week, Overton said she was turned away by a poll worker who told her, “If you’ve been here long enough to get a voter registration card, you’ve been here long enough to get ID.” She said she hoped to go with her sister Monday or Tuesday to get a state ID, then take it to the polls. But because they both have doctors’ appointments, it may not work out.

There are two kinds of politicians. Those who fight for the right to vote of every eligible person and those who pass laws undermining that right, particularly for people of color, the young and the poor. The underminers—like their ancestors who long fought to keep people without property, women and people of color from voting—view themselves as patriotic. In fact, they are unAmerican.