INSTITUTE INDEX: Texas voter ID law heads to the Supreme Court

Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last year that Texas began enforcing one of the nation's strictest voter ID laws: 2

Date on which a federal court in Texas struck down that law as purposefully discriminatory: 10/9/2014

Number of days later that a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put the law back into effect: 5

Days after the circuit court ruling that the Department of Justice and a coalition of minority advocacy groups filed an emergency petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block Texas from enforcing the law for this election: 1

Number of times in recent weeks the U.S. Supreme Court has acted to reverse rulings that sought to change voting rules with elections approaching: 3

Percent by which a voter ID law reduced turnout in the 2012 election in Tennessee, according to the Government Accountability Office: 2.2

Percent by which the Tennessee law reduced turnout of African-American voters: 3.3

Estimated number of Texans who lack a driver's license or other acceptable form of government-issued photo ID: 600,000

Estimated percentage by which Texas's Hispanic voters were less likely than whites to have ID consistent with the state's voter ID law: 45

Estimated percentage by which Texas's African American voters were less likely than whites to have the required ID: 100

Cost of a birth certificate in Texas, one of the underlying documents needed to obtain a required ID or election identification certificate (EIC): $22

Portion of Texas counties that lack a state Department of Public Safety (DPS) office, which issues the EICs: 1 in 3

Because of that, miles some voters would have to travel round-trip to obtain an EIC: 200

According to DPS, number of EICs issued since the state's voter ID law took effect in June 2013: 295

(Click on figure to go to source.)