Rep. Castro requests GAO analysis of Texas voter turnout
© Greg Nash

Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate his states’ controversial voter ID law, which was overturned a week ago by a U.S. district court judge, to see if they lead to suppression of minority voters during the upcoming election. 

“In recent years, the State of Texas has developed a notorious reputation for their stringent election laws,” he said in a letter sent Friday to the GAO.

The law was initially ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, who said the “alleged goal of preventing voter fraud does not outweigh the discriminatory effect on the poor, African-Americans and Hispanics.” But the 5th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated the law for the upcoming election on the grounds that such a drastic change so close to Election Day would be too disruptive.

ADVERTISEMENT

Castro wants the GAO to piggyback off of another recent report it released, which found that voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee hampered minority voting from 2008-2012. More than 600,000 voters in Texas, who the Justice Department says are mostly black and Hispanic, lack proper identification to vote under the new law. 

The Texas lawmaker specifically asked the GAO to analyze the changes to Texas’ minority vote, the average cost and prevalence of identification that can be used to vote, examine the outreach that seeks to inform voters about the new changes, and determine the amount of in-person voter fraud during the 2014 election. 

Before 2013, the Department of Justice had to approve any change to Texas' voting rights laws to ensure that they did not discriminate against certain voters. But when the Supreme Court overturned the "preclearance" requirement in the Voting Rights Act of 1964, that restriction no longer applied to Texas. While the state's voter ID law was initially barred by the Justice Department for discrimination, the state immediately put the laws into effect. 

Castro is a supporter of the Voting Rights Amendment Act that seeks to restore a significant portion of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court overturned, including the "preclearance" provision. The legislation hasn't moved in the House, and while the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill over the summer, it hasn't made progress since.