Earlier today, Elisabeth gave a preview of rampant voter fraud happening in Texas. In short, voter fraud is a major problem, not only in Texas, but across the country. The Obama Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Eric Holder, struck down the Texas voter i.d. law today:
The Obama administration has once more gone too far in its "overreach," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Monday, after the Justice Department objected to the state's new voter photo ID law, saying Texas failed to demonstrate that the law is not discriminatory by design against Hispanic voters.
"Texas has a responsibility to ensure elections are fair, beyond reproach and accurately reflect the will of voters. The DOJ has no valid reason for rejecting this important law, which requires nothing more extensive than the type of photo identification necessary to receive a library card or board an airplane. Their denial is yet another example of the Obama administration's continuing and pervasive federal overreach," Perry said.
On Monday, the Justice Dpartment's head of the civil rights division, Tom Perez, sent a a six-page letter to Texas' director of elections saying that Texas has not "sustained its burden" under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to show that the new law will not have a discriminatory effect on minority voters. About 11 percent of Hispanic voters reportedly lack state-issued identification.
Texas planned for this moment and has already pushed back against Obama's DOJ:
Anticipating the Obama administration’s decision, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a federal lawsuit in February to have the law implemented immediately. Washington has until April 9 to respond to the lawsuit.
AG Abbott contends that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is acting on political grounds, not legal.
President of True the Vote Catherine Engelbrecht, a non-profit voter integrity group, has issued a statement in response:
Our state overwhelming approves of photo voter ID, it’s been proven time and again that using photo ID’s actually improves voter turnout, including the turnout of minority voters, because it increases voter confidence. So what is this really about? This is all to further the administration’s radical, racial political agenda – an agenda that relies on perpetuating a theme of victimization, and to allow for the continued subversion of our election process, disenfranchising all legitimate votes by diluting them with those fraudulently cast.