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 The state's Democratic Party had challenged the law, signed by
former Republican Governor Robert McDonnell, saying it was
politically motivated and intended to deter young and minority
voters from turning out on Election Day.
"The court's mission is to judge not the wisdom of the Virginia
voter ID law, but rather its constitutionality," wrote U.S. District
Judge Henry Hudson in his decision.
While he noted that the measure created an "inconvenience" for
potential voters who did not have drivers' licenses or other
government-issued ID, he said that was not enough to strike it down.
"While the merits of this voter identification law, and indeed all
aspects of Virginia's voting regime, can be reasonably debated, it
remains true that Virginia has created a scheme of laws to
accommodate all people in their right to vote," Hudson wrote.
 Lawyers representing the state Democratic Party said in a filing
that the Republican-dominated state legislature passed the photo ID
law "to stall, if not reverse, the growing success of the Democratic
Party in Virginia."
The state argued that ID was necessary to ensure that only
registered voters cast ballots and to prevent voter fraud.
In 2008, President Barack Obama became the first Democrat to carry
Virginia in more than 40 years, in part because of turnout among
black, Latino and young voters. Obama carried the state again in
2012.
In the most recent statewide elections, Democrats also swept all top
offices: governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
Moreover, the state’s two U.S. senators are both Democrats.
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Hudson acknowledged that Virginia, a former slave state, has "an
unfortunate history of racial and statutory artifice to hinder black
voting."
The ruling comes a month after another federal judge upheld a
similar requirement in neighboring North Carolina.
A federal court this week ordered Kansas to register thousands of
eligible voters who have been blocked from registering.
That ruling resulted from an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit
filed on behalf of Kansas residents who tried to register to vote
through the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles and had been forced
to provide additional documentation of citizenship.
(Editing by Scott Malone and Tom Brown)
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