AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A top Texas state senator has proposed legislation revising a strict law requiring photo ID at the polls.
Filed Tuesday, District 17 Republican Sen. Joan Huffman’s bill seeks to comply with a federal court’s ruling last year that found Texas’ law discriminatory.
The proposal keeps the current law the same. But it would make permanent an option ordered by a federal appeals court allowing people without an accepted ID to vote by signing an affidavit declaring that they have a reasonable impediment stopping them from doing so.
A recent Associated Press analysis found that hundreds of Texans may have voted improperly by using affidavits to cast ballots despite attesting to actually having an acceptable ID.
Huffman’s bill also creates a third-degree felony offense for making a false statement on the affidavit.