Dathan Trevino Edinburg- Federal trial for the lawsuit against Texas Senate bill 1 is underway after being challenged by voting rights groups two years ago.
The trial began on September 11 with the lawsuit alleging that a 2021 voting rights law violated the U.S. Constitution.
Texas Senate bill 1 empowers election officials such as poll watchers, and enhances ID requirements, as well as banning multiple balloting methods, such as drive through voting.
Assistant Professor for the Department of Political Science Alvaro Corral said Texas is one of the most restrictive states in regard to voting. “Texas regularly election after election often ranks 50th or 49th in terms of voter turnout, we have essentially the lowest political participation of all 50 states,” said Corral.
In a pre-trial order filed by both parties of the case, Senate bill 1 states it will “prevent fraud in the electoral process.” The plaintiffs claimed there was no cause for this reasoning, and the bill was in violation of the Civil Rights Act, by targeting certain groups of people.
In an August 18, news release from the U.S. Department of Justice the U.S. district court for the Western District of Texas agreed and ruled that portions of the bill violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Former Pre-Law Adviser at UTRGV Charles Olney says the real question lies on if the protection of the voting process is actually helping or if it is only causing infringements on certain classes of people. “It seems very clear that there is a partisan motivation, that Republicans worry that certain kinds of voting practices are better for the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. Whether that is racial discrimination is maybe a separate question,” said Olney. “When you have minority groups who strongly prefer one party over the other, those things tend to get very entangled, and can be hard to separate.”
The bill is expected to be on trial until late October with a decision not coming until months later.
