Over the past year, I and others have written repeatedly that states and counties should go to United States District Court for approval of Section 5 submissions, and not to the Justice Department Voting Section.  Galveston County (Texas) provides yet another example why jurisdictions should bypass DOJ to get a fair and impartial hearing of election law changes.  The Justice Department has objected to, and therefore blocked, Galveston’s proposed method of election.

By the way, Texas may face a similar problem shortly with Texas Voter ID because of submitting the law to DOJ instead of to federal court.