Justice Department sues Texas to prevent two provisions of new GOP election law from coming into force

AUSTIN – The US Department of Justice is suing Texas to prevent parts of the controversial GOP-backed state election law from coming into force next month.

In a complaint filed Thursday, the ministry opposes the law’s new identification requirements for mail-in ballots and limits on voter assistance, which it says violate federal voting and civil rights protections.

“Our democracy depends on the right of eligible voters to vote and to have that ballot count,” US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will continue to use all the authorities at its disposal to protect this fundamental pillar of our society. “

Republicans who control the Texas Legislature passed the vast rewrite of election laws this year, despite the Democrats’ months-long crusade to block what they say would deny black, Latino and disabled voters the right to vote in an increasingly diverse state.

After two dramatic walkouts and a series of special sessions, enough Democrats have returned to Austin to end the standoff. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed the divisive elections bill in September, saying it would promote confidence in the election.

The law, also known as Senate Bill 1, has already faced a barrage of lawsuits from civil rights and voting groups. It is expected to come into force in early December, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Texas is one of many Republican-led states to tighten election laws following the loss of former President Donald Trump in 2020. The Biden administration has already sued Georgia, alleging that the new law of the state is intended to restrict access to black voters’ ballots.

On Twitter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he would see President Joe Biden in court.

“Biden comes after Texas for SB1, our recently enacted Election Integrity Act,” said Paxton, a Republican. “This is a great bill that we badly need. Ensuring that Texas has safe, secure and transparent elections is a priority for me. “

The lawsuit marks the Biden administration’s latest against Texas, the country’s most populous red state. Recently, the US Department of Justice challenged the new state-imposed six-week abortion ban, which was submitted to the US Supreme Court on Monday.

The administration’s lawsuit over the state’s new electoral restrictions makes no mention of the more politicized parties, such as the 24-hour and drive-thru voting ban deployed by Harris County in Houston in an attempt to to facilitate voting during the pandemic.

Instead, the lawsuit calls for two specific provisions that it says will disqualify eligible Texas voters who are disabled, elderly, out of the country, or who have limited English proficiency.

One requires absent voters to include a driver’s license or ID card number issued by the Department of Public Security on their mail-in request to vote and on the envelope used to send out their ballot. Those who do not have one can use the last four digits of their social security number. The information must correspond to what is in the voter registration file.

The lawsuit argues that the new requirement “will deprive certain eligible postal voters of the right to vote on the basis of paperwork errors or omissions not material to their qualifications to vote.” In Texas, people with disabilities, sick, 65 years of age or older, in jail or out of county on Election Day can vote absent.

The Justice Department is also challenging the law’s new limits on what kind of help voters can get if they need help voting. By prohibiting assistants from answering questions, responding to requests for clarification of translations of ballots and confirming that voters who cannot see marked the ballot as intended, according to the lawsuit, the new Texas law “Further and impermissibly restrict the fundamental right to assistance in the voting booth.

Texas House Democrats applauded the Biden administration “for taking decisive action to stop Texas Republicans’ continued attacks on our democracy.”

“This bill has never been about electoral security or voter integrity. It was always about the Texas Republicans using the big lie to justify restricting access to the ballot box, ”said Chris Turner, chairman of the Texas House Democratic caucus, D-Grand Prairie; US-Mexico Legislative Caucus Chairman Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas; Nicole Collier, chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, D-Fort Worth; and Texas Legislative Study Group chairman Garnet Coleman said D-Houston in a joint statement.

The group also called on the US Senate to pass federal voting rights legislation.

House Democrats who fled to Washington DC over the summer to block the Texas Elections Bill lobbied Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. They have both been blocked by a Republican obstruction in the US Senate.