Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Voter ID bill clears state senate – Dems, GOP weigh in
What about you – FOR or AGAINST a state voter id card?
Send your comments to online.editor@valleyspringcomm.net
From Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie on the Texas Senate’s approval today of SB 362:
"Texas Senate Republicans began the legislative session on a bitterly partisan note, doing away with the venerable two-thirds rule in order to ramrod photo Voter ID legislation through that formerly bipartisan deliberative body.
"Last night and through this morning, our Senators heard nearly 24 hours of testimony featuring overwhelming evidence that voter impersonation is virtually nonexistent and that photo Voter ID legislation would disenfranchise countless Texans. In spite of this, the Senate “Committee of the Whole” approved the voter suppression bill with a vote along party lines.
"With this vote, Senate Republicans chose destructive partisanship over preserving the most fundamental cornerstone of our democracy. Instead of choosing to move Texas forward by addressing the real issues, Senate Republicans want to throw our state in reverse, back to the era of poll tax. We remain hopeful that our State House members will rise to the challenge of seeing this bill for what it is – bad legislation for all Texans.”
From the Texas Republican Party web site:
What’s odd is that there’s any debate at all. To many, if not most Texans, requiring a voter to show his or her ID at the polling place is a no-brainer, and an obvious step for those who want to protect the sanctity of elections
In a 2006 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, for example, 80 percent of those polled supported the idea of voters showing some sort of photo ID at the polling place
Gov. Rick Perry, in an interview with The Courier Sunday, said requiring voter identification is common-sense legislation supported by most voters.
“I don’t understand why anyone is not in favor of it. This is strictly about stopping voter fraud, and I think it polls up in the high 80 (percent) for Republicans, and in the high 70s and 80s for Democrats, so just from a public policy standpoint, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t support it.
If it passes, Texas will join Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan and South Dakota in requiring a photo ID.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Requiring IDs is the same as a poll tax. According to non-partisan researchers, 12% of Texans will be affected by this new law. The AG spent $1.5 million to investigate voter fraud and found next to nothing.
Read this story to put a personal face on those whose votes will be suppressed with this new law.
http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=A4D9048329559D1C5D401E2BEB64371B?diaryId=8206
Of all the problems facing Texas, I find it odd that one of the first orders of business for the Senate in the 81st Legislature was to pass Senate Resolution 14. SR-14 calls for a picture ID voting card. There were fourteen public interest groups that opposed a change to the voter identification requirements. “Requiring a photo ID at the polls would affect the elderly, disabled, and poor, creating unnecessary barriers to voting and violating a basic fundamental right,” said Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. AND I’m almost sure the Catholic Church protested when a dozen nuns were refused the right to vote because they lacked a photo voter ID card.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/07/nation/na-voterid7
Senator Tommy Williams, a Republican from the Woodlands and 22nd in the hierarchy of the TX Senate, said this issue took precedence over such things as high tuition costs, and redistricting issues. SR-14 was even more important than trying to better our standing as being the last wrung on the ladder of states with health coverage for our citizens. Another oddity was the call to do away with the normal 2/3rd vote required to pass an issue. The Republican dominated Senate opted for a majority vote instead. And why not? There were plenty of back room talks before the vote. Someone surely ratted out Senator John Carona’s intention of voting against his party lines and against SR-14. This, of course, made Senator Williams’ all important SR-14 a little iffy as to it’s outcome-so OUT with the 2/3rd vote and in the majority vote. Using this kind of thinking, what can we expect from future votes?
This photo voting ID card will be particularly hard for me since I am disabled. I have voted by mail for years because I am housebound and only go out to see the doctor which is an all day event! I must question how many photo identification cards we must have, too. Lets see …. we need a photo ID for a driver’s license, a passport, to be in the military, in law enforcement, to be allowed into some schools and some companies. A picture ID is needed on Certificate of U. S. Citizenship, Certificate of Naturalization and The Transportation Worker ID Credential (to identify those who have been cleared to enter sensitive security areas such as airports, shipping terminals and ships). You must also have a photo ID card for The Merchant Mariner’s Document (issued by the U.S. Coast Guard), Native American Indian tribal document, and some Credit Cards. When a photo ID voting card is the LEAST of the problems Texas has on her plate, I hope the Texas House will refuse to play these kinds of games!
from Patricia A. Jones
Post a Comment