The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Texas election integrity laws. The laws were designed to crack down on abuses by groups like ACORN in the registration process. The laws were passed with bipartisan support, though you will no doubt hear them referred to as GOP-supported legislation. Non-Texans were prohibited from becoming deputy registrars. It required registrars to be from the county where they were appointed. And it required voter registration forms to be delivered rather than dumped in the mail. These are the provisions that Project Vote felt compelled to challenge. The presser from the TX AG: Federal Court Rejects Project Vote’s Challenge to Texas Election Integrity Laws AUSTIN – Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected Project Vote’s challenge to the election-integrity measures passed with overwhelming bipartisan support by the Texas Legislature in 2011. The Texas Attorney General’s office released the following statement from Lauren Bean, spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General’s Office:
“The Attorney General’s Office is pleased that the courts have once again reaffirmed the Texas Legislature’s ability to adopt common-sense election laws that are designed to instill confidence in our electoral process and prevent election fraud. Decisions like this one are reminders that these cases are nothing more than political stunts that are brought by plaintiffs—who simply oppose election integrity on political grounds—and their lawyers, who seek to reap attorneys’ fees at the taxpayers’ expense.”