A history of discrimination toward African Americans in Texas prompted the federal government in 1975 to add the state to those whose election laws are monitored. Now the prospect of a new voter ID law in Texas has the U.S. Department of Justice focusing on the Hispanic population there.

In Texas, 38 percent of the population is Hispanic, according to the 2010 Census, compared to 11.8 percent African Americans. In Webb County, just north of the Mexican border near Laredo, 96 percent of county is Hispanic, the largest Hispanic population for a U.S. county.

Members of the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project contend that the voter ID law would disenfranchise members of this growing minority who are unable to obtain the necessary documents to obtain a government-issued photo ID. Texas Republican state senators who support the proposal reject that assertion.

Take a look at the percent of Hispanic residents in Texas’s 10 most populous counties, according to the most recent Census:

 

By Annelise Russell, News21