<P> By the end of July 2016, federal courts ruled on challenges to voter ID laws in Ohio, Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin . All the cases are likely to be heard ultimately by the US Supreme Court . The court ruled that the legislature's ending of Ohio's "Golden Week" imposed a "modest burden" on the right to vote of African Americans and said that the state's justifications for the law "fail to outweigh that burden ." This week had been a period of time when residents could "register to vote and cast an early ballot at the same location ." </P> <P> The Texas law was not overturned, but the state was advised it needed to have alternative processes in place that were not discriminatory before the November 2016 election . A North Carolina law was overturned as "its provisions deliberately' target African - Americans'...in an effort to depress black turnout at the polls ." Parts of Wisconsin's voter ID laws were ruled to be unconstitutional and it was advised to accept more forms of identification for the fall 2016 election cycle . </P> <P> Voter ID laws go back to 1950, when South Carolina became the first state to start requesting identification from voters at the polls . The identification document did not have to include a picture; any document with the name of the voter sufficed . In 1970, Hawaii joined in requiring ID, and Texas a year later . Florida was next in 1977, and Alaska in 1980 to become the first five states in the United States to request identification of some sort from voters at the polls . </P> <P> In 1999, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore attempted to start a pilot program that required voters to show IDs at the polls . His initiative was blocked by Democrats and the NAACP, and was stopped by court order . His administration had spent and mailed $275,000 worth of free voter ID cards to residents in Arlington and Fairfax counties . </P>

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