Travis County waiting for guidance on Voter ID law appeal

Federal appeals court Wednesday struck down Texas’ voter ID law, saying it was discriminatory.

Advocates for voting rights are now stressing the need to fix the Voting Rights Act, as current restrictive voting regulations can reverse the advances made in securing voting rights for minority communities. Spanish-speakers, Native Americans, Native Alaskans and Asian Americans are among the groups who did not benefit from the Voting Rights Act until Gerald Ford signed the extension in 1975.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted key provisions of the VRA in its Shelby County v. Holder decision, weakening vital voter protections.

President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (R) listen as US Congressman John Lewis, D-Georgia, delivers remarks marking the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act in Washington, DC, August 6, 2015.

According to his office, in the 2014 election about 200 peoples’ votes did not count because they did not have one of the seven approved forms of ID.

Forty states have implemented “suppressive” voting laws since the Supreme Court “eviscerated” the Voting Rights Act of 1965, insisted Martin Luther King III, also representing the Drum Major Institute.

Obama proposed making September 22 National Voter Registration Day.

However, the decision was not an outright victory for supporters of the Voting Rights Act, as the court sent the law back to a lower court to be amended.

“Fifty years ago today, the Voting Rights Act, a landmark piece of legislation, was signed into law”. “But if you’re African-American, you know that there is a problem”.

The NASS Elections Committee is dedicated to educating and informing members about state election administration practices and laws, as well as tracking proposed federal legislation and the activities of other federal government entities.

Critics of the law claimed that it imposed a “poll tax” by excluding those who can’t afford the fees associated with state ID cards, but Texas has taken steps to allow residents to receive IDs for free so the court disagreed with that assertion in its ruling.

“We want the Congress to know, and the world to know, that everyone deserves the right to vote”, said convention attendee Kip Banks. That would affect only a handful of mostly Southern states, many of which offer more voting opportunities than some Northern states.