Texas District Judge Bucks the Trend

Depend on Texas to buck the national trend of voter suppression.

In Ohio it is becoming fashionable to deny Democrats, only Democrats, the ability to vote at an Early Voting location during non-business hours, while at the same time offering Republicans the convenience of going to the polls after work to cast their ballots.

And in state after state we are seeing the growth in the requirement for a photo ID at polling places. True, most people have photo IDs, but elderly and poor people – also known as Democratic Voters – generally lack this thing.

Voter Suppression, that is, Democratic Voter Suppression, is the rule, not the exception these days.

But depend on Texas to buck this trend.

In Galveston, a federal district judge refused to grant a stay that would have allowed State Attorney General Greg Abbott to enforce newly-passed Texas voter registration laws, laws that would have seriously restricted the ability of people to register to vote, and to register others to vote.

Taken together, these laws would “prohibit completed voter applications from being mailed to county offices; prohibit deputy voter registrars from registering voters in counties where they don’t live; prohibit the photocopying of voter registration cards; require voter registrars to be Texas residents; and prohibit registration drives from firing deputy registrars based on their performance. Some of the blocked provisions specifically address “volunteer deputy registrars,” the canvassers who, by law, must be appointed to take applications from prospective voters.”

So now, instead of allowing Republicans free reign to keep growing numbers of Texas Democrats from registering to vote, this Texas federal judge seems to be bucking the trend, and seems to be backhandedly allowing Texas voters to vote for Democratic candidates.

But leave it to Greg Abbott, he’ll find a way to keep Democrats away from the polls somehow. This is after all a national movement and one thing Texas Attorneys General are good at is going along with national trends.