Comment on Holder calls Texas voter ID law a 'poll tax'

Holder calls Texas voter ID law a 'poll tax' Houston Chronicle Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 11:04 p.m., Tuesday, July 10, 2012 A day after a federal three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., began hearing a lawsuit involving a Justice Department challenge to Texas' voter identification law, Attorney General Eric Holder told the 103rd annual convention of the NAACP on Tuesday that "we will not allow political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right." Because of its history of voter discrimination, Texas must get Justice pre-clearance before it can change its election laws. "Over the past three years the Civil Rights Division has filed more criminal civil rights cases than ever before, including record numbers of police misconduct, hate crimes and human trafficking cases," Holder said. The attorney general, the first Cabinet member ever held in contempt of Congress because of his refusal to hand over documents pertaining to a border guns operation called "Fast and Furious," received a standing ovation after his address.