Late last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into a law a bill that loosens restrictions on the state’s controversial voter ID law.
As The Hill reports, the new law still requires ID, but the state will allow citizens to vote if they bring some form of non-photo identification with them, like a bill or a bank statement that has the person’s name and address on it. If the voter chooses to vote using this non-photo ID option, they must sign an affidavit attesting to their identity.
In 2011 Texas passed the strictest voter ID law in the country. The law allowed certain identification methods likely to be held by conservative voters, like a gun license, but did not consider a student ID valid. The law was blocked twice by the Obama administration, and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually held that the law discriminated against minority voters.
