A federal judge has again blocked Texas’s harsh voter ID law, saying the revised version of the law does not correct the discrimination in the earlier version, and in fact could even further restrict voting rights. The Texas law, first imposed in 2011, created a list of IDs required to vote that skewed heavily toward IDs carried by whites, such as gun licenses, while excluding IDs often carried by people of color, such as government employee IDs and public university IDs.
The new version does not expand the list of acceptable IDs. Instead, it allows people without the IDs to vote if they bring additional paperwork and sign an affidavit. But Judge Gonzales Ramos says the criminal penalties attached to lying on the affidavit could deter people from voting because they could fear prosecution if they make an honest mistake on the form.