Kill the Texas voter ID law and start over

Texas’ strict voter ID law could be dead before the November presidential election.

It should be. Not that a fair law requiring voters to present proper identification at the polls is out of the question, but the law passed by the Legislature in 2011 is and has always been too restrictive.

Arguments for and against the Texas law were heard again Tuesday by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

A Supreme Court ruling in 2013 allowed the Texas restrictions to go into effect, spurring a new round of challenges.

A federal judge in Corpus Christi and a three-judge appeals panel at the 5th Circuit have agreed with plaintiffs, led by U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, that the law discriminates against minority and low-income voters.

The state asked that all 15 of the 5th Circuit’s justices rehear the case, and the court agreed. But the Supreme Court has given the appeals court only until July 20 to rule.

If the 5th Circuit rules against the law as the Corpus Christi court and the appeals panel already have done, that opens the door for the Supreme Court, even before a full formal presentation to the high court on appeal, to agree with Veasey and the plaintiffs that the Texas law should not be enforced in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Legislators and top state officials have always argued that the voter ID law is needed to combat voter fraud.

The plaintiffs countered that it’s a solution in search of a problem, that there’s scant evidence of voter fraud.

The state has a “scant evidence” argument of its own: that there’s nothing to show that minority Texans actually have been kept from voting by the law’s requirements.

But the plaintiffs say it’s the opportunity to vote that counts, and the law’s restrictions on that opportunity are too tight.

That’s what this case turns on. The Texas law permits fewer forms of identification than any other state.

In cases involving laws in other states, the Supreme Court has approved voter ID requirements and said it is a legitimate interest of the state to prevent voting fraud.

Texas voters are required to present a state driver’s license or ID card, a concealed handgun license, a U.S. passport, a military ID card or a U.S. citizenship certificate with a photo.

The state ID card is free, but Texans must go to a Department of Public Safety location to get it, and they must have a copy of their birth certificate.

Texas could have crafted its voter ID law like those in other states, but lawmakers intentionally made it more restrictive. They went too far.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Kill the Texas voter ID law and start over."