A federal judge has upheld Virginia’s voter ID law challenged by the Democratic Party of Virginia and two voters alleging the Republican-controlled state legislature enacted it to curb the number of young and minority voters.
“Mindful that the court’s mission is to judge not the wisdom of the Virginia voter ID law, but rather its constitutionality, this court cannot say that plaintiffs have met their burden of proof in showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the Virginia voter ID law … contravenes the Voting Rights Act, the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, or the Twenty-Sixth Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson wrote Thursday.
You can read the 62 page opinion here. Virginia’s law is not as strict as some other laws being challenged, and in all of these challenges, the standards for winning are quite difficult for plaintiffs. This is why the loss of Section 5 preclearance thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder is such a big deal.
Any appeal will go to the 4th Circuit, which has already fast-tracked the appeal of North Carolina’s voter id/voting law.