In an earlier ruling, federal Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos had noted that more than 600,000 registered voters in Texas were vulnerable to losing their vote because they lacked the photo identification mandated by the new law.
Even though voter identification mandates have been ruled unconstitutional in other states, U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh told supporters in Illinois last month that voters should be required to present "proof of citizenship" before casting a ballot.
Studies have shown that 25percentt of African-Americans, 16percentt of Hispanics, and 18percentt of individuals over 65 do not even have the documents required to gain the proper photo identification mandated in new voter ID laws.
Critics said the audit proved that the Obama administration had failed to fully carry out the stricter identification requirements mandated by Congress in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Calls for a nationally mandated identification card have been made for decades, particularly after 9/11, but they received a push late last month when a group of Democratic senators unveiled a blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform.
There is no question that government proposals to limit speech, expand surveillance, or mandate online identification should be opposed.
The new laws should mandate the identification of all account owners, prohibit transactions with "shell banks" that have no physical premises and require closer monitoring of accounts coming from countries with lax banking laws.
For example, commercial spreadsheets that run on Windows® do not mandate user identification, do not partition and encrypt sensitive data, and do not maintain a record and audit trail of use.
A New Hampshire legislative committee voted yesterday to accept $3 million in federal money to test the Real ID Act, which mandates stricter identification requirements for driver's licenses nationwide in 2008.
Their involvement in one in five genetic diagnoses by our laboratory using a comprehensive genetic testing platform mandates their identification in any clinical genetic diagnostic test for deafness.
