Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (LDF) submitted testimony in the House Elections Committee opposing Senate Bill 1340. The bill has numerous harmful provisions but if enacted, S.B. 1340 would codify flawed voter-registration and list-maintenance procedures, including reliance on the disbanded and discredited Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, that are known to burden naturalized citizens, who are predominately Hispanic and Asian in Texas, and Black voters. S.B. 1340 also likely violates at least two separate provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”) of 1993, in addition to raising serious concerns under the First, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Moreover, S.B. 1340’s provisions serve no legitimate, non-discriminatory purpose.
Read our full testimony here.
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Follow LDF on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
