Texas Points To Need For Voting Rights Act, Say Latino Legislators, Groups

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on the Voting Rights Act, a group of Latino legislators and legal rights groups in Texas said if you want to know why it is important to keep this legislation, just look at the Lone Star State.

“Texas is the poster child of why we need to keep the Voting Rights Act,” says Luis Figueroa, a legislative attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF.) In 2011, Texas enacted a voter ID law which groups like MALDEF fought, alleging it would make it harder to Latinos and other minorities to vote. Among those who testified were 18-year-old Nicole and Victoria Rodriguez, Texan twins who did not have driver’s licenses – their parents could not afford to pay for their car insurance – but had valid high school IDs, birth certificates and social security identification.

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