Last week, voting rights advocates accused Texas Republicans of mounting a procedural end run around a panel of federal appeals court judges.
As The New York Times reports,critics have charged Texas GOP officials with trying to run out the clock on a case that would keep many poor and minority voters from the polls in November. In July a federal appeals court ruled that the Texas Voter ID law discriminates against minorities who lack IDs and cannot easily obtain them.
A lower court later ordered state officials to let people without IDs vote. They can do so by signing a statement that they “cannot reasonably obtain” an ID. But Texas officials have held up the judgement, arguing about the use of the word “reasonably” in the court ruling.
One small word could have a big impact. More than half a million otherwise eligible Texan voters have none of the required IDs.