Federal appeals court says law, which critics say disenfranchises low-income minority voters, violates the Voting Rights Act and must change by election day

Texas’ stringent voter identification law has a discriminatory impact that breaches US voting rights law, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

The decision is a victory for campaigners who argue that its photo ID requirements amount to vote suppression in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The notoriously conservative fifth circuit appeals court ordered at least some changes to limit the bill’s “discriminatory effect” before the November general election.

But the extent of those changes is unclear as the presidential election looms. The court sent the case back to a district court to figure out a compromise solution before November that will lessen the bill’s unfair consequences while respecting the Texas legislature’s authority. It also asked the court to re-examine whether the law has a discriminatory intent.

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“The record shows that drafters and proponents of SB14 were aware of the likely disproportionate effect of the law on minorities, and that they nonetheless passed the bill without adopting a number of proposed ameliorative measures that might have lessened this impact,” the judges wrote in their opinion.

A number of Republican-led states have introduced tougher voting laws in recent years. Texas passed its law – one of the nation’s most restrictive – in 2011. It mandates that most voters must show one of seven forms of current or recently-expired government-issued photo ID, such as a passport, drivers’ license or handgun license.

Its proponents argue that the law, known as SB14, is an important measure to combat electoral fraud. Critics say that claim is a smokescreen because there is no evidence that voting fraud is a problem in the state. They contend that the law’s true purpose is to make it harder for groups more likely to lean Democratic to vote, such as minorities, students and people with low incomes.

“This law was nothing less than a brazen and transparent attempt to keep people of color out of the voting booth,” said Rebecca Robertson, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, in a statement.

Texas is a “minority-majority” state with a fast-growing Hispanic population and Democrats have long harboured hopes that shifting demographics could one day turn the nation’s second-most populous state from red to blue.

During an earlier court case it was claimed that more than 600,000 registered voters in Texas, about 4.5% of the total, lack suitable ID. The district court found that the law disproportionately affects Hispanic, black and poor people. Those on low incomes, it concluded, are less likely to have drivers’ licenses and, especially in rural areas, may face arduous and costly trips to locations that issue acceptable forms of identification.

Wednesday’s ruling notes several cases of individuals who were turned away at polling stations, including one man who could not afford the $81 cost of a Louisiana birth certificate.

“Ballot integrity is undoubtedly a worthy goal,” the court opinion states. “But the evidence before the Legislature was that in-person voting, the only concern addressed by SB14, yielded only two convictions for in-person voter impersonation fraud out of 20 million votes cast in the decade leading up to SB14’s passage. The bill did nothing to combat mail-in ballot fraud, although record evidence shows that the potential and reality of fraud is much greater in the mail-in ballot context than with in-person voting.”

In a dramatic dissent, Edith Jones, one of the fifth circuit judges, said that the requirements are reasonable, there was no evidence of racial bias by the Texas legislature and that her colleagues who formed the majority opinion emulate “the clever capacity of Area 51 alien enthusiasts who, lacking any real evidence, espied a vast but clandestine government conspiracy to conceal the ‘truth’”.

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A legal fight against the law has been waged for years by Hispanic and African American civil rights groups and the US Department of Justice. A federal court blocked implementation in 2012, but that decision was overturned the following year when the US supreme court gutted a key part of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that had required states with a history of racial discrimination to seek federal approval before changing their election rules. Just hours after the justices announced the ruling, Texas declared the rule would go into immediate effect.

The issue still seems likely to end up in the US supreme court, which had ordered the fifth circuit to make its decision by Wednesday. But civil rights advocates were encouraged by the decision, which came a day after a federal judge dealt a blow to a similar law in Wisconsin. In that case, the judge ruled that voters in November will be able to cast a ballot by signing an affidavit explaining that they were unable to get valid ID.

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, said in a statement that “preventing voter fraud is essential to accurately reflecting the will of Texas voters during elections, and it is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety”.

