A Win for Electoral Integrity: Supreme Court Refuses Obama Administration Attempt to Block Texas Voter ID Law

By 

Matthew Clark

|
October 21, 2014

2 min read

Election Law

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Just ahead of the midterm elections, the Supreme Court has stopped President Obama’s latest attempt to block commonsense measures to ensure voter integrity.

This past weekend the Supreme Court weighed in on Texas’s voter ID law refusing to block its implementation before Election Day.

The Wall Street Journal has the story:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday allowed Texas to enforce its voter identification law for the Nov. 4 midterm elections, denying emergency requests from the Obama administration and other challengers who said the law harmed minority voting rights. . . .

The state law requires voters to show a state-issued driver’s license, personal ID card or concealed handgun license, or a U.S. citizenship certificate, military ID card or passport.

This week the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, acting on an emergency appeal by state officials, decided Texas could use the voter ID law for this election. The appeals court said the state already had been training poll workers to apply the voter ID law and said it was too late to change the rules so close to the date when voters were due to begin casting ballots.

The fact is voter ID laws do nothing more than enforce longstanding laws in every state in America requiring individuals to be registered to vote before casting a ballot.  These laws are aimed to ensure three things: 1) that you are who you say you are, 2) that you are registered to vote, and 3) that you haven’t already voted in that election.

It’s that simple.  It’s commonsense.  And Texas got it right.

Protecting the integrity of our elections should be a national priority, regardless of party affiliation, but you have to wonder about an Administration that is seeking to enable voter fraud.