October 6, 2011 Mr. T. Christian Herren, Jr.

Chief, Voting Section Civil Rights Division Room 7254 - NWB Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20530 Submission Reference: 2011-2775 Dear Mr. Herren, We have recently seen the Texas Secretary of States response to your request for additional information regarding SB 14 (the photo voter id legislation). Frankly, I find it galling and an act of utter disrespect for the Department of Justices important role in upholding the Voting Rights Act. Based on the response, its clear that the State of Texas has no intention of fully complying with your Departments request. You requested: The number of registered voters in Texas, by race and by Spanish surname within county of residence, who currently possess a Texas drivers license or other form of photo identification issued by DPS that is current or has expired within sixty days. Please include a description of the manner in which you calculated these numbers;
The SOS only provided a breakdown by Spanish surname. You also requested:

For the 605,576 registered voters who the State has advised do not have a Texas drivers license or personal identification card, please provide the number of such person by Spanish surname, as well as an estimated number by race, within county of residence;
Again, the SOS only provided numbers by Spanish surname.

For the SOS to claim that they cannot produce the information requested is just plain false. It is entirely possible that the SOS can obtain highly accurate estimates of the race of the remaining voters. The most logical thing to do would be to utilize the Texas State Data Center. The Texas State Data Center and Office of the State Demographer, in cooperation with a network of affiliates, functions as a focal point for the distribution of Census information for Texas. The State Data Center houses the Texas Population Estimates and Projections Program established in the mid-1980s to meet a growing demand for population estimates for places and counties and

for estimates and projections for counties that had age, sex and race/ethnicity detail. Exactly the kind of data youre asking for. They could also use a commercial vendor of which there are many who provide this type of analysis for marketing agencies and well as government entities. If they dont like those options, they can give the data to us and well get the analysis done and send it to the DOJ to fulfill your request. The fact that they refuse to even try sure makes it seem like theyve got something to hide, like how many of those voters who lack government issued photo id are African American and Asian. If the State of Texas refuses to provide the data requested by your Department regarding the race of the registered voters without government issued photo I.D., then it is our contention that they have not met the burden of proof required under the Voting Rights Act for the legislation to be pre-cleared and therefore pre-clearance should be denied. Thank you for your attention to this matter and I look forward to hearing the Departments decision soon. Respectfully,

Boyd L. Richie Chair, Texas Democratic Party