Voter ID Laws Blocked One Month from Election Day

Federal courts blocked voter ID laws in Texas and Wisconsin on Thursday, with less than a month to go until Election Day.

U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos struck down the voter ID requirement in Texas, comparing it to a poll tax meant to suppress minority voters.

Gonzales Ramos, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the law "was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose."

But supporters of voter ID laws say their actual goal is to prevent fraud at the ballot box.

With early voting in Texas scheduled to begin Oct. 20, Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office said it would appeal "quickly to avoid voter confusion in the upcoming election."

Texas offers free voting IDs that only require a birth certificate, which costs as little as $3. But the Justice Department argued against the law, saying that traveling to get those documents imposes too great a burden on poor minorities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court also blocked a similar voter ID measure in Wisconsin.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared Wisconsin's law constitutional on Monday. But on Thursday night the U.S. Supreme Court issued a one-page order that vacated the appeals court ruling pending further proceedings.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen defended the law saying, "I believe the voter ID law is constitutional, and nothing in the court's order suggests otherwise."

Photo ID measures have swept the U.S. in recent years and have mostly been upheld in court.