HB 626: Voter Suppression Texas Style

Ah, Democracy American style.

Labor Day Barbecues, stump speeches, red, white and blue bunting, kissing babies, the hustings, voter registration drives . . .

And then there’s HB 626 to come to the Texas State House floor tomorrow to do away with a fine American tradition – the voter registration drive and citizen registrars.

In another attempt to suppress liberal voters from going to the polls, HB 626 authored by Phil King (R - Weatherford), will bring to an end this great tradition in the guise of protecting the integrity of the vote by excluding all those hordes of people out there who are registering multiple times or people attempting to register to vote who are not even citizens of America. This belies this sentence in the bill’s committee analysis document:

“While there is no evidence of extensive fraud in Texas elections or of multiple voting, both can occur and it could affect the outcome of close elections.”

The bill’s committee analysis finds no reason for the bill to be offered, just that it would be bad if someday someone decided to register to vote several times, or if some of Bob Perry’s illegal immigrant employees took it to mind to register to vote.

HB 626 also makes it a requirement that a voter who shows up at the polls, must have in their possession their registration certificate and a photo ID. What sort of photo ID? Unlike it’s twin abortion, HB 218, no preference is stated. Just something that has the same name on it as in the Secretary of State’s list with a photo of the voter.

This is a naked attempt to suppress the liberal vote. Voting should be the easiest thing in the world to do. Make it easy, not hard. Example, Bill Clinton’s signing of the Motor Voter Bill brought millions of people to the polls for the first time. The Motor Voter Bill was Godly, by contrast HB 626 is the Anti-Christ.

HB 626 is satanic. Satan is the king of lies. Lies are being spread about this bill. Look at the bill’s fiscal note here. It lies. The sentence reads “No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.”

A lie.

Yes, replace voter registration volunteers (yes, we do it for free) with state and county personnel (they charge for their services) to handle the registration. You can do this without significant fiscal impact, right? Replace postcards with 8.5 x 11 documents and an envelope with postage paid by the state. There is no significant postage difference between a post card and a business envelope, right?

I guess it depends on your definition of “significant”.

My definition of significant can be found in this sentence: Isn’t it significant that all of these Republican attempts at voter suppression come on the heels of the ’06 elections? The largest political calamity to the Republican Party in recent memory?

Now that’s significant.