SOUTHWEST VOTER REGISTRATION EDUCATION PROJECT

For Immediate Release Contact: Lydia Camarillo August 30, 2012 922-0225, lcamarillo@svrep.org 210-

TEXAS LATINOS WIN TWO LEGAL VICTORIES

SVREP SUED TO PROTECT THE VOTING RIGHTS OF LATINOS IN TEXAS VOTER ID AND REDISTRICTING
(San Antonio, Texas - August 30, 2012) Southwest Voter Registration Education filed two legal challenges to protect the voting rights of Latino voters. Today, the Federal Court in Washington DC denied Texas its request for preclearance to implement the Texas voter ID law. The Federal court found that the Voter ID would violate the Voting Rights Act and dilutes the Latino vote. Texas received two rulings this week from federal courts saying that it violated the Voting Rights Act. These laws Voter ID and redistricting are the two most significant voting laws Texas has passed since 2003. This is a colossal victory for the hundreds of thousands of America citizens who will be able to cast their vote this election cycle, state Antonio Gonzalez, SVREP President. The Texas voter ID law would have violated the voting rights of Latino in Texas. We are pleased with the courts decision. We can now get back to rolling up our sleeves to register and mobilize Latino voters for the general election without worries about also having to provide education on the approved id documents proposed in this intentional discriminatory law, said Lydia Camarillo, SVREP Vice President. SVREP has registered 12,845 Latino voters in Bexar, Dallas and Tarrant counties since January, most of these voters are high school and college students who would have had to provide the required ID to cast their vote and their student ids would have be rejected, state Gonzalez. Texas sued the United States Department of Justice asking that it pre-clear Texass right to implement the legislative it had passed in the 2011 legislation on the voter ID. SVREP joined in the lawsuit as a Defendant-intervener. MALDEF represented SVREP in this case.

Camarillo testified before the Federal court in Washington DC, in the Texas v. Holder, on July 12th, here is part of quote: Lydia Camarillo, a Texas voter education specialist who has worked for over 35 years in the Hispanic community, testified that because "Latinos are often among the working poor[,] . . . Latinos struggling to afford groceries, rent, and child care may not be able to afford . . . a copy of a birth certificate in order to get a voter ID." Defendant-Intervenors Ex. 9 at 224. Moreover, Camarillo testified, "[f]or working class Latinos, the requirement of travelling to the DPS during regular business hours may prevent them from obtaining ID because their work hours are not flexible." Id. Earlier this week, on August 28th, a three-judge federal panel issued a ruling in Texas v. United States denied preclearance under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act for three Texas statewide redistricting plans. SVREP intervened, in Texas v. United States, as member of Texas Redistricting Task Force on behalf of Latino voters to challenge the congressional and state House redistricting plans on the grounds that they that discriminated against Latino voters. The decision denies preclearance and prevents Texas from implementing the maps, which were enacted in the 2011 legislative session. In its ruling, the three-judge panel found that: the Congressional Plan reduces Latino voting strength and was enacted with discriminatory racial intent; the State House Plan reduces minority voting strength; and the State Senate Plan was enacted with discriminatory racial intent. The Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force, a statewide coalition of Latino organizations include Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), HOPE, the Mexican-American Bar Association of Texas (MABA-TX), William C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI),Southwest Workers Union and NOMAR. MALDEF represents the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force and SVREP serves as the Chair of the Task Force. Texas Latino voters are having a great week, concluded Camarillo.

SVREP is the oldest and largest organization of its kind, has registered 2.5 million Latino voters, trained over 150,000 Latino leaders many of whom currently serve as public servants at the local, state and national levels in Texas and others states in the southwest. SVREP has won 80 voting rights lawsuits across the southwest.