Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked during a Senate hearing, which voter ID laws are racist, and the witness told him Texas.
Video:
Sen. Ted Cruz: "What voter I.D. laws are racist?"
Professor Franita Tolson: "Apologies Mr. Cruz, your state of Texas, perhaps." pic.twitter.com/men5LnJgrg
— The Hill (@thehill) September 22, 2021
Sen. Cruz asked which voter ID laws are racist?
Professor Franita Tolson answered, “Apologies, Mr. Cruz, your state of Texas perhaps?”
Cruz then tried to say that the professor called the entire state of Texas racist, and she said, “I think, sir. That is pretty reductive. I’m not saying your entire state of Texas is racist.” She then went on to provide evidence by citing a federal district court ruling that found that the Texas law was put into place to diminish the power of Latinos with racist intent.
Cruz then tried to separate the racist and discriminatory intent of voter ID laws from the act of showing an ID to vote, and that went about as well as one would expect coming from a lawyer who has never argued a case in court.
The experts on the Senate panel made it clear that not all voter ID laws are racist, but some voter ID laws have racist intent and are meant to target minorities.
Sen. Cruz could not defend voter ID laws on their own merits. The intent of the law impacts the subsequent acts under the law. For example, a racist voter ID law means that people who don’t meet the law’s criteria can’t vote, so they can’t go to the polls and show an ID to vote. They have been cut out and excluded from the electoral process.
The point of racist voting laws is to shrink the size of the electorate so that it is more difficult for people who are more likely to support Democrats to vote.
Red states are enacting racist voting laws, which is why Democrats must take action at the federal level to protect the right to vote.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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