AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the Texas voter ID law (all times local):
4 p.m.
Texas’ Republican attorney general says the fight over the state’s voter ID law hasn’t ended.
A spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday that a temporary compromise with the U.S. Justice Department and minority rights groups was made under time constraints and a court order.
Texas was forced to soften its voter ID law after a federal appeals court in July ruled that the restrictions discriminated against minorities and the poor.
Opponents of the law say more than 600,000 registered voters in Texas had lacked the photo identification that was required to cast a ballot.
Paxton spokesman Marc Rylander says Texas isn’t ruling out eventually going to the U.S. Supreme Court over the law that was passed in 2011.
___
2 p.m.
Texas agreed Wednesday to weaken its voter ID law, which federal courts have said discriminated against minorities and the poor and left more than 600,000 registered voters potentially unable to cast a ballot.
The state worked fast to soften the law before November’s election, moving from requiring voters to show one of seven forms of suitable ID — a list that included concealed handgun permits, but not college IDs — to letting those without such an ID to sign an affidavit. That will allow them to cast a regular full ballot, and their vote will be counted.
Texas must also spend at least $2.5 million on voter outreach before November, according to the agreement submitted to U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who must still approve the changes.
The changes come as judges across the U.S. are blocking several Republican-controlled states from imposing stricter election rules this November.