By Nathan Henderson-James

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters.

Today the Dallas Morning News editorialized on the recent attempts by the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbot, to find any evidence of widespread voter impersonation fraud or illegal voting by non-citizens. Project Vote reported on his failure to find any evidence of organized or widespread fraud earlier this week.

The purpose of this $1.5 million fishing expedition was to find reasons to back-up an expected renewed effort in the Texas legislature to impost voter ID requirements on eligible voters in the Lone Star State. But, as the editorial notes, the threats of voter impersonation and massive fraud from undocumented immigrants are mostly effervescent.

Were those threats real, Mr. Abbott most certainly would have provided proof, helping Republican state lawmakers make their case for new laws requiring a photo ID at the polls to go along with the traditional Texas voter registration card.

He didn't.

In the absence of that proof, GOP legislators appear indifferent to the fact that thousands of registered Texas voters – 150,000 to 400,000, by one estimate – have no photo ID and would face some level of expense to obtain one. Research shows that these voters tend to be elderly, female and poor. They also tend to be Democrats, leaving Republicans to answer to a charge of partisanship.

The editorial also offers a test for any voter ID law, one that echoes a test Project Vote put forth two years ago.

There is a simple test for any legitimate voter ID law: It should not shift new, undue burdens onto registered Texas voters and obstruct their constitutionally guaranteed access to the ballot box.