Texas asks Supreme Court to save voter ID law after election

September 24, 2016 at 4:15 a.m. | Updated September 24, 2016 at 4:15 a.m.

by Associated Press

In this Feb. 26, 2014, file photo, an election official checks a voter's photo identification at an early voting polling site in Austin. A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, July 20, 2016, that Texas' strict voter ID law discriminates against minorities and the poor and must quickly be scrubbed of those effects before the November 2016 election. Voters will still need to show identification at the polls under the decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to attorneys who challenged the law, but a lower court will now also have to devise a way for Texas to accommodate those who cannot.
In this Feb. 26, 2014, file photo, an election official checks a voter's photo identification at an early voting polling site in Austin. A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, July 20, 2016, that Texas' strict voter ID law discriminates against minorities and the poor and must quickly be scrubbed of those effects before the November 2016 election. Voters will still need to show identification at the polls under the decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to attorneys who challenged the law, but a lower court will now also have to devise a way for Texas to accommodate those who cannot.

AUSTIN-Texas is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to restore its newly weakened voter ID law but not until after the November election.

The request filed Friday comes two months after a federal appeals court ruled that the state's 2011 law discriminated against minorities and the poor. The U.S. Justice Department has argued that more than 600,000 registered voters lacked an acceptable ID under the law.

Texas was forced to soften those ID requirements for the upcoming election. But Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the Supreme Court to ultimately restore the full law.

Elections experts say the Texas law was among the toughest voter ID measures in the nation. It required showing one of seven forms of photo identification, allowing concealed handgun licenses but not college student IDs.

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