A bill that would slash the number of days allowed for early voting is likely to be pulled after scathing testimony Monday from opponents who said the bill was discriminatory and retrogressive. 

Proponents of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act hope than an amicus brief filed by interests groups will sway the nine justices charged with rendering a decision on the landmark civil rights legislation.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act appears to be in danger of being overturned, according to various news outlets covering oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

At a news conference leading up to Wednesday’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, some Democratic lawmakers said the issue at hand — whether to uphold Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act — deals with a statute that has helped propel minorities to more equal ground in a state with a history of racial discrimination.

At Thursday's TribLive conversation, state Reps. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, talked to Julián Aguilar about disenfranchising voters.

Overall, Texas voters — by a slight majority — believe the federal government should continue oversight of the state's changes in election laws, according to the October 2012 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. But partisans are split.

The U.S. Supreme Court may determine the fate of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that became an Achilles' heel for Republican lawmakers this year. That could free Texas from federal oversight in election laws. 

For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about issues important to conservatives and to Hispanics, and about whether Texas Republicans have a good shot at a majority of Hispanic voters in the near future.

Did the outrage over voter ID take all the energy away from Texas Democrats? A flurry of GOP-backed laws that affect voter registration indicate it did. 

At Thursday's TribLive conversation, I talked with Attorney General Greg Abbott about voter ID, redistricting, the cost of suing the feds 24 times and whether he's going to run for governor.

An advocacy group has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop new voter registration laws before next month's deadline to register.

Many of the measures designed to make the ballot box more secure — like asking people to affirm that they are, in fact, alive — create hurdles for a public that isn't terribly motivated to vote in the first place.

The return to power of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is unlikely to be accompanied by the corruption that used to plague the party, say Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. 

The state's top lawyer has filed a pile of lawsuits against the federal government. Two decisions last week — on redistricting maps and the state's voter ID law — went against Attorney General Greg Abbott and the state.

Texas officials want access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which the secretary of state’s office said could be “one of many important resources for confirming voter eligibility.” 

The state of Texas has requested that a federal judge stay a ruling that blocks restrictions for deputy voter registrars. Attorneys for the state say the injunction is adding confusion to the elections process. 

If preclearance for the state’s voter ID law is granted, the state has promised to issue free “election identification certificates," forms of photo ID for use only in voting. But some argue that Texas voters could have a tough time reaching the Department of Public Safety offices to get those IDs. Take a look for yourself at our map of the all the DPS driver's license offices in Texas.

Testimony in the federal court trial over Texas' voter ID law ended Friday, but a decision on the law requiring a photo ID to cast a ballot may be far off.