Lawsuit Claims Texas Election Law Impedes Registration

A voting rights group is asking a federal judge to overturn the state’s 2011 voter-registration law, arguing that its criminal penalties impede efforts to register Hispanic and minority voters.
 

According to the Houston Chronicle, the group Voting for America, an affiliate of Project Vote, believes the law may be a violation of 1965 Voting Rights Act because it prohibits out of state activists from registering voters, the use of photocopied registration forms, and bulk mailing of completed forms.

It also penalizes voter registrars for turning in forms late.

“When a new set of laws were passed we decided there was no way we could do voter registration work without the risk of prosecution,” Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater testified in the case Monday in Galveston.

The lawsuit also asks U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa to block the state from enforcing a portion of the law that requires a photo ID to vote until separate federal court action over that provision is settled.