Schaefer Reacts to Changes Ordered to the State’s Voter ID Law

AUSTIN — A Tyler lawmaker is not pleased after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act. The New Orleans court has ordered changes before the November election. State Representative Matt Schaefer says he strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling. He says “fraud is real and we know there is an effort to allow illegal aliens to vote in the United States.” Schaefer says if the court has left one inch of flexibility to come back and reform this bill, lawmakers will do it.

The ruling was issued Wednesday by the court. The ruling instructs a lower court to make changes that fix the “discriminatory effect” of the 2011 law in the months leading up to this fall’s election. But the ruling said the lower court should make changes that disrupt this year’s election season as little as possible.

The Obama administration took the unusual step of deploying the weight of the U.S. Justice Department into the case when it challenged the law.