Voter ID change makes sense, if only for now

We knew Texas’ 2011 voter ID law went way too far.

Now the courts have said so, and both sides have agreed to a partial rollback for the fall election.

Instead of needing a current or recent Texas drivers’ license, handgun license or U.S. passport, or other legal photo ID, Texans will be allowed to vote with another reasonable form of identification:

▪ A legal photo ID that has been expired no more than four years, regardless of whether the address still matches.

(It never made any sense that an obviously good photo ID clearly naming the voter was perfectly valid on the 60th day past expiration but absolutely worthless on the 61st day.)

▪ A certified copy of a birth certificate.

▪ A current voter registration card.

▪ A government check or document showing the voter’s name and an address.

▪ Or a financial document showing the voter’s name and an address, such as a bank statement or paycheck.

Voters using a nonphoto ID must also sign a legal affidavit saying why they were unable to get the required ID.

Texas also will spend $2.5 million promoting the new ID requirements, according to settlement terms. That’s about what the state has spent to promote voter ID rules the last few elections.

A spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the agreement clears the way for fall elections, but state officials are still considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Texas should think long and hard before appealing the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to the current divided Supreme Court.

By a 9-6 vote of one of the most conservative appellate courts in the U.S., judges ruled that the state’s voter ID law was discriminatory and returned the case to a lower court to decide whether that was intended.

The judges took the unusual step of citing examples of intent, giving the lower court basically a how-to list for ruling that Texas’ law is rooted in racial discrimination.

Texas lawmakers said their intent was to prevent voter fraud, but they drew up one of the shortest lists of qualified IDs in the country.

The law disqualified about 600,000 eligible voters, many low-income, elderly, African-Americans or Hispanics without access to birth certificates, the court found.

Voter ID itself is not the dispute. Both sides agree that voters should be identified.

The debate is only over which IDs to accept, and whether the rules are fair.

Every eligible Texan’s vote should count.

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Voter ID change makes sense, if only for now."