MEMPHIS — The Tennessee Supreme Court said Thursday that it will take up the challenge to the state’s voter-identification law and has ordered election officials to accept Memphis photo library cards at the polls.
The Supreme Court ordered Secretary of State Tre Hargett and state Elections Coordinator Mark Goins to advise the Shelby County Election Commission to accept the library IDs for Tuesday’s election.
Goins issued a statement saying the commission has been told to accept the library IDs, but said he’s “confident the Supreme Court will confirm our interpretation” when it hears the case.
“We continue to believe the General Assembly clearly intended for only state- or federally-issued photo IDs to be valid for the purposes of identifying voters,” he said.
Hargett and Goins last week appealed a Court of Appeals decision that upheld the voter identification law they have championed because it also ruled that the library cards were government-issued photo IDs and were to be considered as valid “evidence of identification” at the polls.
The state officials contend that the state’s new law requiring voters present photo IDs does not apply to the Memphis library cards.