Protest Votes Under Scrutiny

There's a new kind of protest vote in Texas. The state's voter ID law allows people without one of the seven accepted forms of ID to sign an affidavit allowing them to cast a ballot. Over 16,400 Texans signed such an affidavit during last November's election. However, a recent study conducted by the Associated Press indicates that around 500 people statewide had a valid and acceptable ID yet signed the affidavit anyway. Most stated that they were signing as a protest against the law, something that could eventually see them face charges of perjury. The Tarrant County elections division has already said that it would consider sending evidence of anyone "blatantly" violating the rules to the district attorney. Moving forward, lawmakers appear to be backing away from the old voter ID measure. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the latest appeal against lower court findings that the rules are discriminatory, Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, filed Senate Bill 5, which would provide Texans with more ways to prove they are who they say they are at the ballot box, while simultaneously toughening up penalties for violations.