DALLAS (AP) — Dallas County commissioners are considering voting to join the federal voting rights challenge to the state’s new voter ID law.
That law requires voters to present photo identification to vote in person.
The Justice Department sued the state of Texas in federal court in Washington, D.C., in 2011. It alleges the Texas law would discriminate against minority voters.
In a joint statement, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and District Attorney Craig Watkins say the legislation “could disenfranchise many registered voters in Texas and Dallas County.”
The law had been limited because of provisions of the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key portion of the law earlier this year, however, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry immediately implemented the ID law.