Back to the drawing board with voter ID law

Once again Texas’ problematic voter ID law was tossed out by the courts.

We’d like to say, “We told you so” to the legislators who supported it, but the judge already did that.

What part of discriminatory do they not understand?

Many Texans support voter ID laws for good reasons. They can help ensure election integrity and in most cases, providing some form of personal identification is not an unreasonable burden.

That was not the case with the state’s 2011 voter ID law.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled last year that the law was too restrictive, resulting in “an impermissible discriminatory effect.” US. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos didn’t mince words when she deemed the discriminatory effect was intentional. .

Of course, Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed, but was rebuffed by the 5th Circuit, which didn’t disagree with Ramos’ ruling.

In an effort to avoid federal oversight of the state’s election laws, the Legislature passed a new voter ID law that largely codified changes ordered by the court.

But the new law was halfhearted and didn’t go far enough. Voters who could not present one of seven forms of IDs could use alternative forms, such as a utility bill, bank statement or pay stub, but they also had to present a signed affidavit swearing a “reasonable impediment” kept them from obtaining what was otherwise required. And the law barely eased up on expired IDs, allowing only Texans of 70 and older to use them when voting.

We weren’t impressed. Judge Ramos wasn’t either.

“The provisions of SB 5 fall far short of mitigating the discriminatory provisions of SB 14,” Ramos wrote in this week’s decision.

She then spent 27 pages explaining her decision before barring the state from enforcing any part of it.

Paxton’s response? He wants to appeal — again.

Texas has already spent about $3.5 million fighting for a bad law in the courts. It shouldn’t waste any more time or taxpayer money on something that needs to be scrapped entirely and redrafted next session.

Other states have passed and the courts have upheld, fair and reasonable voter ID laws. Why can’t Texas?

The Legislature should give voter ID another try next session. But for now, let this law die.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Back to the drawing board with voter ID law."