Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) accused Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday of calling the state’s voter ID law a “poll tax” in order to “inflame passions and incite racial tension.”
In a written statement, Perry called on President Barack Obama to “disavow his Attorney General’s offensive and incendiary comments” about the voter ID law, which seems likely to be blocked by a federal court under the Voting Rights Act.
“In labeling the Texas voter ID law as a ‘poll tax,’ Eric Holder purposefully used language designed to inflame passions and incite racial tension,” Perry stated. “It was not only inappropriate, but simply incorrect on its face.”
Holder, the first African-American attorney general, went off script when he called voter ID laws “poll taxes” during his speech before the NAACP last week. The remark came as Holder’s Justice Department was arguing that the passage of the law should be seen in the context of “tremendous population growth” within Texas’ Latino community.
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