Let’s Talk Voter ID Bill
I haven’t had a post about pending voter ID bills at the TX legislature, and it’s about time I did, since a voter ID bill made it out of TX House committee yesterday.
I’m not in favor of the voter ID bill, though I can understand and appreciate the desire to protect the vote. I just believe it’s already protected.
Voter fraud is something we can already detect and prosecute. The fact is that it doesn’t happen often and it’s prosecuted even less often. Some on the right would have us believe that there is an epidemic of voter fraud in Texas. There isn’t. Attorney General Abbott spent millions searching for voter fraud and basically came up empty.
Most people currently vote with either their voter registration card (which you have to identify yourself to obtain) or their driver’s license.
My biggest concern is that, unless DPS or some state agency plans to offer free photo IDs to all, we will bring back a de facto poll tax. Few things in this world irritate me as much as the idea of having to pay to vote.
My second biggest concern is that — even with a free state-issued ID — it creates a hassle for registered voters who want to vote. Moreover, it creates the biggest hassle for the people who can least afford to deal with it. Some legislators are trying to introduce a delay in the time a voter ID bill would take effect in order to educate voters. Efforts like that are well-intentioned, but they don’t remove the hassle.
It’ll be a bumpy ride in the legislature for the next few weeks, and it’s anyone’s guess whether a voter ID bill will make it through the legislature this session.
Oh, and the Texas Democratic Party put up a neat online game that explains the Party’s objections to the bill pretty clearly:
www.txdemocrats.org/page/content/twister
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May 12th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
You’re absolutely right, Kenny; all these “Voter ID” bills are at best, solutions to a virtually non-existent problem. Their real purpose, of course, is the disenfranchisement of (assumed) Democrat-leaning voters.
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I saw local voter people(poll workers) trained by Patti Jones(R) and Dorothy Kennedy asking for picture ID’s in the recent election. When I asked these poll workers their names they covered up name tags and called sheriff deputy on me. I believe local voter office is already intimidating voters with law not even on books. I contacted both Democrat and Republican party locally and both were uninterested about what I saw.
PS:
I wasn’t arrested but warned to not be asking for names of poll workers. They had something to hide and local parties may be in on this manure!