Appeals Court Strikes Down Texas Voter ID Law That’s Similar to North Dakota’s
Voting booths at Hermosa Beach City Hall during California Primary
This is a win for the Obama administration which took Texas to court over a voter ID law which doesn’t allow ballots to be counted until the voters casting them show one of seven valid identification documents.
You can read the 5th Circuit’s opinion here, or below.
[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]Why even bother with laws defining political subdivisions, or voter qualifications, if we cannot enforce them?[/mks_pullquote]
For North Dakotans it means our voter ID law – which is very similar to the one in Texas – may be in jeopardy too. In fact, North Dakota allows even fewer forms of identification than Texas. Per the Secretary of State’s website, voters here may show a driver’s license, a non-driver state ID card, a tribal ID card, or a certificate from a long-term care facility.
That’s it.
There is litigation pending over North Dakota’s law dating from January when the Colorado-based Native American Rights Fund filed suit claiming the ID requirements are unconstitutional (read their complaint at the link).
Our friends on the left have long claimed that these voter ID requirements are about suppressing the minority vote, but I think we have to remember that our political system makes identifying qualified voters a necessity. It’s not just about ensuring that someone is a citizen of the country, or a citizen of the state, where they’re voting. It’s also about ensuring that they are qualified to vote in whatever local jurisdiction – be it a city or a county or a legislative district – they’re trying to cast a ballot in.
The law up to and including the U.S. Constitution creates political subdivisions, each with its own elected government. The law sets out the criteria for who may and may not vote in those political subdivisions. Yet we’re supposed to believe that laws verifying that voters qualified to cast ballots, and are casting them in the appropriate jurisdiction, are somehow racist and unconstitutional?
The left argues that very little vote fraud actually happens. This isn’t true, but that’s beside the point. Why even bother with laws defining political subdivisions, or voter qualifications, if we cannot enforce them?
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