Second world war veteran twice denied absentee ballot under Texas voting law

Kenneth Thompson, 95, must submit a social security or driver's license number, which wasn't required in the 1940s

A 95-year-old second world war veteran twice denied an absentee ballot under a restrictive Texas voting law has attracted support from prominent figures including Beto O'Rourke, a voting rights campaigner and former presidential candidate now running for Texas governor.

Kenneth Thompson, who served in the US army in Europe, told Click2Houston, a Harris county news outlet, he had voted in every election since he was 21 and even remembered paying a 50-cent poll tax in the 1950s.