NBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Texas Voter ID Law

Interview

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Joining us now is Congressman Marc Veasey of Texas. Congressman Veasey is one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit contesting Texas`s voter ID law. He was a member of the Texas legislature when it originally passed that bill in 2011.

Congressman Veasey, thanks very much for being with us tonight.

REP. MARC VEASEY (D), TEXAS: Thank you, Rachel.

MADDOW: So, tomorrow`s going to be the first statewide test of the ID law in Texas on Election Day. We`ve already seen one of the implications of early voting. One in four voters in Dallas is having to file an affidavit in order to try to get their vote counted.

How are you feeling about Election Day in your home state?

VEASEY: Well, Rachel, Greg Abbott has made a mess out of Texas voting. There was nothing wrong with our voting system in Texas previous to this voting ID law that was passed in the legislature.

Texas had great voting laws. We have a very nice early vote period. You can vote for almost two weeks during early vote. Senior citizens have the right to vote by mail. We made it easy to vote by Texas.

But because of the numbers that you talked about earlier, Republicans are seeing the growing numbers of Latinos in the state, the growing numbers of African-Americans, and they are beginning to be concerned because they haven`t made any sort of
outreach to the black community or the Latino community. And so, they`re trying to skew the elections their way. I think this is a tragedy.

And, Rachel, I`ll tell you that it`s so bad that you -- I`m sure that you saw earlier that Wendy Davis actually had to file an affidavit to vote. Greg Abbott, her presumptive opponent in the general election in 2014, he actually had to file an affidavit to vote. But the former speaker of the House, Jim Wright from Ft. Worth, he went to go and try and obtain a voter ID card, and he couldn`t obtain a voter ID card.

That`s how absurd this law is. That`s how bad it`s gotten here. And it`s all about suppressing the rights of African-Americans and Latinos, elderly and the poor to vote in the state of Texas.

MADDOW: I was struck by the "A.P." observation, what they found in their assessment. They went through county by county and looked at the voter lists in every county in Texas to see the impact of this ID law would be.

And they found that Texas voters who don`t have the right ID to be able to vote live disproportionately in counties with high poverty rates and/or a large percentage of minorities. Was that -- was it known that that would be the consequence of this law when you were originally debating it and fighting it in the legislature when you were there?

VEASEY: Absolutely. When I was in the state legislature, I made these points. Other Democrats made these points over and over again. We had data that showed that the people that would be disproportionately impacted by this voter ID law were Latino voters and African-American voters.

The Republicans never answered the questions that we raised. They were just so eager to pass this particular law that would disenfranchise voters, and I think that what is really sad, Rachel, is that women are being disproportionately impacted by this law in larger numbers than was previously thought. It`s absolutely terrible.

And for a state like Texas that is growing so fast, that has such a good reputation as a place to live and do business, it`s sad that now, because of this law that was passed by Republicans, we are known as a state that is trying to make it harder for people to vote just so it can favor the Republican Party. I think it`s terrible.

MADDOW: Congressman, when I look at the numbers about Latinos in Texas and their political preferences, which are very, very strongly Democratic, the last few elections voting Democratic by 20, 25-point margins or more. But then I look at turnout numbers in a state that the census says is 40 percent Latino, to only be turning out 17 percent Latino on Election Day, that is obviously something that very much scares Republicans in terms of what would happen if Latinos did start turning out in greater numbers.

But it also represents a real failure for the Democratic Party for not having been able to maximize their vote among that population that`s been so friendly to Democratic candidates.

What do you make of that and do you think Democrats are getting any better?

VEASEY: Well, you know, Democrats, we`re working harder and harder every day on outreach, and we are making gains in the state. And I will tell you that when you look at this voter ID law, I`ve worked on campaigns before, I was an elected official.

I worked on campaigns and I saw many Latino citizens that would come into the mall where we ran voter turnout programs in southeast Ft. Worth, and we would ask, would you like to go and vote?

And oftentimes, many of those voters would say, yes, I want to vote, but I rode the bus here, or I don`t have my own car, you know, but I -- you know, and so, I can`t vote. And we would say, no, you can vote in Texas, because we have good laws here in Texas.

If you have a copy of a bill or if you have an ID card from your university or your high school, you know, you can vote as long as you`re 18 years of age. And now, I know that that same population that I talked with at that mall in southeast Ft. Worth that really wanted to vote, that they`re going to hear this law and they`re going to be discouraged. They`re not going to go back like Speaker Wright did or like Wendy Davis did. They`re going to say that -- they`re going to think that the state of Texas doesn`t want them to vote and they`re going to sit out. And the Republicans knew exactly what they were doing when they saw to disenfranchise these very voters that you are talking about right now.

MADDOW: Congressman Marc Veasey, Democrat of Texas -- thanks for helping us understand this tonight, sir. It`s nice to have you here.

VEASEY: Thank you, Rachel.

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