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July 12, 2012

Attorney General Eric Holder
Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder Tells the NAACP He Will Fight to Protect Voting Rights

He Makes His Vow as Texas Challenges Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told attendees on Tuesday at the NAACP annual convention in Houston that Texas' proposed voter ID law would be harmful to minority voters and that is why the Department of Justice rejected its implementation.

"Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID but student IDs would not. Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them," Holder said during the speech. "Since the passage of this law, the NAACP and other leading civil rights organizations have been spearheading critical efforts to protect the rights of minority voters in this and other states."

The Attorney General explained that recent studies have shown that nationally 25 percent of African-American voting-age citizens lack a government-issued photo ID compared with only 8 percent of white voting-age citizens.

Holder made his comments as the Department of Justice and Texas face-off in a Washington, D.C., federal court over Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Texas Republicans who dominate the legislature passed in 2011 a law that requires residents to show a state-issued photo ID before they can vote. Texas is one of eight states with this requirement. The other states are South Carolina, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, according the NAACP.

Because Texas has a history of putting obstacles in the way of blacks who want to vote, the state must first submit any changes to its voting laws to the U.S. Justice Department for approval, which is called pre-clearance to ensure certain state meet requirements under Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The Obama Administration blocked Texas photo ID law in March, citing the Voting Rights Act. Texas sued the Department of Justice, sending the case to trial before a three-judge panel. The trial, which began July 9, is expected to last five days.

Texas officials said the state passed the photo ID law to prevent voter fraud.  Keith Ingram, an official in the Texas Secretary of State's Office, testified that he knew of at least four verified instances that someone dead had voted.

Under cross examination, however, Ingram admitted that some of the instances were a result of clerical errors.

Holder told NAACP members that he couldn't predict how the case would go.  "But I assure you that the Justice Department Department's efforts uphold and enforce voting rights will remain aggressive."

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