Texas Voter ID Law May Get the Thumbs Up/Down on Monday

In a series of exchanges between the federal Department of Justice, the Texas Secretary of State, and the Texas Attorney General, we have witnessed an historic fight for the right to vote in Texas.

The Voter ID Law, passed overwhelmingly by a Republican super-majority in the Texas legislature, practically guarantees the disenfranchisement of the elderly, because they have no drivers’ licenses, the poor and minorities.

You know. Democrats.

Based on the false notion that there is widespread voter fraud in the state, Republicans sought to seal their majority for all time by denying traditional Democratic voting blocs of their constitutional right to vote.

Or let me correct myself. Yes there is voter fraud in the state of Texas, but it isn’t being perpetrated by illegal aliens. It is being perpetrated by officials in county elections offices.

The DOJ has had a back and forth with the state for awhile now since the state filed for preclearance per its mandate under the Voting Rights Act, an act that singled out 11 southern states for their past transgressions in denying minorities of their right to vote. And the state keeps shrugging its shoulders saying that they don’t keep the kind of records that the DOJ is asking for. Yes, that and filing suit against the DOJ for denying the state of Texas its sovereign right to conduct its own elections.

Something that as demonstrated in the past that they are singularly unable to do because of past discriminatory policies.

Anyway, another deadline is fast-approaching and on Monday we can finally see the DOJ tell Texas to go to freaking H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks.

Any state that asks as a proof of citizenship that a person produce a conceal-carry gun permit in order to vote is a state that has stacked the deck on the side of the conservative cause, and has done so with a very cavalier attitude. In short, the reason the Voting Rights Act should still be in place today is self-evident in Texas.

They are unremorseful. Reconstruction ended too soon in Texas.

Fractured Logic

Shaking my head this afternoon after reading an article in the Austin American-Statesman published last Friday. It must be fun being a Texas Republican because you get to operate under a system of logic that is so fractured it looks like a disassembled jigsaw puzzle.

Attorneys from the Texas Attorney General’s office are making arguments before the DC federal district court on why Texas’ new House, Senate and Congressional district maps are not discriminatory toward its minority populations. They argue that it was not the intent of legislators to discriminate against minorities. It was, however, their intent to discriminate against Democrats.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

”In arguments before the court, state lawyers denied any intentional racial bias. They explained that because Republicans control the Legislature, it was only natural that they drew maps that would benefit Republican candidates. The Texas attorney general's office said the reason Hispanics are not the majority in more districts is because most Hispanics vote Democratic, not because of their ethnicity.”

So that makes it OK.

It’s like the guy who recently stole my credit card explained to me that he really didn’t have anything against me and didn’t want to upset me or bring me any trouble, he just needed to get some free stuff.

So that makes stealing, whether it is a credit card or a vote, OK.

Texas Counties Say April 3rd Primary Date is Too Soon

Will there be enough time to put a primary election together next year? Well in this post a few days back I kind of alluded to the fact the tight schedule that the courts have signed on to could be blown if district courts and the Supreme Court drop the ball and fail to come to their various decisions by the end of January. We would be truly cooked.

And now, as it turns out, according to county governments that have filed objections to the April 3^rd primary date, that date is too soon. Assuming that district maps are in place by February 1^st, there is just not enough time to prepare for the election and this could result in massive confusion as voters try to figure out where they vote.

From the Texas Tribune:

“The court based the April 3 date on having a map in place by Feb. 1. But the counties say that wouldn't leave them enough time. The court would give them only two weeks to prepare voter registration certificates that take six to seven weeks to prepare, the groups said.”

“‘If voter registrars are required to mail inaccurate voter registration certificates in order to meet the deadline set by the Court, there is likely to be much confusion among voters. And voter confusion leads to voter disenfranchisement.’”

And the assumption that maps will be in place by February 1^st is the optimistic scenario.

You know, if there are going to be errors made and votes suppressed because of this fiat by the Supreme Court, maybe June 5^th is a more reasonable primary date. By that time, Rick Perry is certain to have dropped from the race for the nomination, and if a presumed nominee has not emerged by that time, Texas Republicans can all vote for the obvious choice to run against President Obama: Ron Paul.

Texas AG Has Tantrum Over Redistricting

Yesterday Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott pitched a hissy fit over a 3-judge panel’s artwork as they redrew state senate and house district maps, correcting the Republican-dominated state legislature’s ham-handed attempt to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of minority voters.

The federal court judges, two of which are Republican, Abbott claims were trying “to make policy” rather than applying the law.

But I beg to differ.

Since the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, every redistricting action that took place in Texas has had to be reviewed by federal judges and the Department of Justice in order to verify that the state has not reverted to its bad old days shenanigans of denying minorities of their voting rights. One of these rights is the right to be heard in the halls of state legislatures and congress.

A right that the Republican-dominated state legislature sought to deny them of in this past legislative session.

So the 3-dudge panel drew up interim maps to be used in the 2012 election cycle until the state can come up with district maps that better reflect the demographics and ethnicity of the communities within each district.

Ironic, isn’t it, that here in the 2nd decade of the 21t century we are still fighting over this? And yes there are still pure evil racists out there who want these gerrymandered districts the way they were, but the grand majority, I would argue, these days are not so motivated by racial hatred in drawing the boundaries, although some may argue with me on this. These days it’s not about race, it’s about politics. Fact is, minority voters tend to vote in their own self interests, and that would be to vote Democratic.

The need for the VRA has changed, but enforcement of the VRA continues to evolve as we as a society do.

DOJ Defers Voter ID Law Decision

It is a clear signal to me, at least, that the Department of Justice is running out of patience with the people who run elections in Texas: Republicans in charge of state elections.

In a letter issued by the head of the Voting Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, the director of elections for the state of Texas was informed that she had not provided the information originally requested by the DOJ to be used to determine whether SB 14, the Voter ID Bill, recently rammed through a Republican-super-dominated state legislature earlier this year, violated the rights of minority voters.

The reason, ostensibly, is that Texas does not require information on race on their voter registration forms, something that they cutely must think demonstrates that Texas is blind to race.

But the Elections Department made it very clear in its reply that this information could be gleaned simply by identifying, say, Hispanic voters by their surnames. Information that has not been forthcoming from the Elections Division. In fact, the date of submission of that information was never specified.

Consequently, the DOJ will not be issuing a ruling in regard to the legality of this law in view of the Voting Rights Act, an act that makes special requirements for voting laws passed by states that previously discriminated against minority voters anytime soon.

Certainly not by the January 1^st deadline, when the Voter ID Law was supposed to be in force.

And one wonders whether it will be in force by the time the Texas primary rolls around in March.

What is clear to anyone with any knowledge of election strategy is that the purpose of this law was to deny minority voters (and for that, read Democratic voters) of their voting rights. Republicans have been working this scheme since the 80’s.

What is very clear to me is that the Elections Department and the DOJ are in a staring contest, and the DOJ has just indicated that it is willing for this to go on for an indefinite amount of time.

Time is, after all on their side.

So Did You Vote Today?

I am a voting junky. I vote in any and every election they’ll let me vote in. I love to vote so much that I usually show up at an early voting polling place and vote early, usually on the 2^nd day of early voting – I give them a day to work out the bugs.

But this year I decided I would vote on Election Day just to see how my local precinct polling place was doing.

Brand new faces.

Last time I voted at my precinct polling place, in 2005, for the constitutional amendments including the amendment that made same sex marriage in Texas unconstitutional, I stood in a line going out the front door for about 45 minutes. What can be the delay, I asked myself.

Well the delay was that everyone I was standing in line with were from the same church, they all knew each other, and had all shown up to vote in what is typically a low turnout election to vote against the gays.

And they all knew the poll workers, who they had pleasant conversations with as they painstakingly went through their tasks. None of these were under the age of 80 in my opinion.

Well, today, I was gratified to see that youth had taken over the precinct polling place and check-in was smooth and efficient.

But there was a new wrinkle at this election, which is the real reason for this report. That’s right, I buried the lead again.

After I got my ballot code the last person in the check-in table pealed off a document from a stack she had in front of her and told me that it was information about new procedures in the next election.

Oh, oh, here it comes, and I looked at it and was not surprised to see that it was an announcement that the new Voter ID law would, starting in 2012, require one of 7 forms of identification, all of which must have a photograph of the voter attached.

But I have to give them credit the first sentence in the notification reads this way:

“Upon US Justice Department approval of a photo identification law passed by the Texas legislature in 2011, effective 2012 a voter will be required to show one of the following forms of photo identification at the polling location before the voter will be permitted to cast a vote.”

It goes on to list the 7 forms of identification, all but one requiring the voter to pay a fee for the identification, and one of them including a Texas Concealed Handgun License issued by the DPS.

Only in Texas…

So I don’t take issue with the notification of a requirement that will be inevitably turned down by the DOJ as it violates the constitutional rights of ethnic groups to vote, they actually did say it was pending approval.

What I take issue with is the fact that they decided that this notification at this time, the lowest voter turnout election, lower than a school board election even, could even be considered due diligence.

Somewhere between 5 and 6 percent of all registered voters will turn out in this election, yet this is when the notification goes out. It really is as if they don’t want to transmit these new requirements on the off-chance that the DOJ finally approves the law (which they won’t).

There is no end to the meanness there is in this state. Texas hates voters.

Disenfranchising Minority Voters, Texas Style

Not surprising me in the least, Texas’ recently-passed Voter ID Law, the one that requires voters present one of only 5 forms of photo ID in order to be able to vote in the state, threatens to disenfranchise 600,000 voters.

This is according to data submitted to the federal government by the state attorney general as requested when the feds decline to issue a “pre-clearance” of the law as required by provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

That request contained a requirement that the attorney general present the federal government with a head count of people who are registered to vote but do not hold drivers’ licenses

And it comes as no surprise that many of the 24 counties where a significant number of registered voters do not carry drivers’ licenses are small rural counties with significant Hispanic populations.

Topping the list is Presidio County which has as many as 25.9%, or 1,313 registered voters with no record of having a drivers’ license.

Republicans, true to form, don’t think the law will disenfranchise voters at all. Patricia Harless R-Spring, and one of the sponsors of the Voter ID law put it this way:

“‘I don't think this, in any way, is going to disenfranchise anyone," she said.”

“Harless said most of the people not found in DPS files would be able to vote. Maybe their licenses and voter ID cards are different because one has a maiden name and the other has a married name.”

“She also said many of those people in border counties could have only passports for travel to Mexico. Or they are 65 years old or older, and exempt from the voter ID requirements.”

And oh, yeah, on that last point about people 65 and older being exempt from the law: liar, liar pants on fire. While it is true that the bill once contained language that exempted those over 65, that was stripped out of the bill before final passage.

Texas Republicans, lying to Texans since 1998.

Harris County Voting Machine Inferno: Arson Not Ruled Out

Last month when 10,000 Harris County voting machines went up in flames, along with all the ancillary equipment needed to run an eSlate polling place, my first suspicion was that someone wanted to discourage voters from casting their ballots in the mid-term elections, and torched the warehouse.

And now, nearly a month later, it seems that Harris County arson investigators have failed to find an accelerant. An accelerant is any trace of a substance, like gasoline or other flammable substances that could rapidly spread a set fire at a rate that would overwhelm any automatic fire extinguishing measures present in the building.

From KPRC:

“On Thursday, Arson Chief Gabe Cortez said they have found no evidence an accelerant, such as gasoline, was used in the fire.”

“‘We will examine some of the items recovered microscopically and with X-rays, and have electrical engineers look at those,’ Cortez said.”

Now in my brief research on the subject I have found that in any given arson investigation, when no trace of an accelerant is found at the site of a fire, the immediate diagnosis is that the fire was caused either by an electrical fault, a leak in a gas line, or “spontaneous combustion” – the latter being the rare case of combustion of a pile of organic material which is undergoing decomposition.

So absent an accelerant or multiple points of ignition, investigation of the cause of a fire shifts toward accidental.

Except in this case. In this case no accelerant has been found, yet arson has not yet been ruled out. And I have to wonder why.

Could it be the thing that keeps nagging at me? That the timing and opportunity is such an obvious factor? That who stands the most to gain in an “accident” of this nature foils any conclusion? And more to the point, if there is a rush to judgment on the cause of the fire, that it was simply an accident caused by an electrical fault, will that not raise some eyebrows in the Justice Department?

That is, if at this point the cause of a fire at a warehouse containing parts for Toyota automobiles has not yet been determined as being set deliberately with an accelerant, my guess is that the whole investigation would lead to conclude that the fault was in the wiring and the case is closed.

But burning up water pumps and ignition coils doesn’t affect an entire statewide election, does it? Harris County contains the highest number of voters, Democratic leaning voters, in the state. A fire at the warehouse containing all voting machines in the county is just a little bit more suspicious.

And really, absent the finding of the presence of an accelerant does not alone mean that the fire was due to an electrical fault. That only means that the accelerant could not be detected.

In truth, even if someone comes up with a blackened electrical junction box with melted wires in it, given the “external evidence” of motive, who stands most to gain from this fire, you will never be able to convince me that this wasn’t a purposefully set fire.

Never.

Travis County Risks Lines at the Polls for Harris County

Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, a Democrat like all the rest of the county-wide elected officials there, has issued a warning to county voters that they should expect longer lines at the polls this upcoming election.

The reason being that Travis County went ahead and loaned Harris County some of its eSlate voting machines so that they could hold an election this fall. Because someone burned up each and every one of Harris County’s 10,000 paperless voting machines.

Now I have no problem with jumping in and sharing when a fellow County Clerk finds herself with no voting machines, because Travis County is heavily Democratic these days and Harris County is still infected with Republicans who are strongly anti-voter. Maybe they can take a slight hit in voter numbers because of their sheer numbers.

But what if this whole thing backfires? What if long lines in Travis County, a blue county, depresses turnout, and long lines in Harris County does the same? These are two of the most populous counties in Texas. I would sure hate to see that this hateful act perpetrated on Harris County voters by a vote suppression terrorist affects the Democratic turnout of not just one Democratic county, but two.

It’s a little risky, all I’m sayin’.

The Politics of Burned Up Voting Machines

It takes a one-off event like burning up every eSlate voting machine in Harris County to reveal how Republicans and Democrats differ in the whole issue of voter fraud and voter suppression.

As it turns out if you are a Republican, you are in favor of voter fraud despite the length of time you take wailing about it, and you are also in favor of vote suppression – something that they don’t really strive to deny to any real extent.

If you are a Democrat, you are against both voter fraud and vote suppression.

Nothing could be more clear after reading this article in the Houston Chronicle about the measures being taken to avoid complete chaos in the November election.

Harris County, as it turns out, will be able to replace 2,325 of its 10,000 burned up eSlate voting machines, and will be able to have 4 of them in operation at each and every one of its 736 polling places.

Anyone who has voted with eSlate knows that 4 per polling place is not enough. So as a result, Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, a Republican by the way, has adopted a “hybrid system” wherein a voter who wishes to use a voting machine will have to stand in line for that, but voters will also have the option of using a paper ballot.

They plan on printing up 1.4 million paper ballots.

“I don't think we need to be stingy with them,” Kaufman is quoted as having said.

Now come to find out, this does not sit well with Republican County Chair Jared Woodfill. Woodfill, as it turns out would have preferred to stay with a 100% voting machine system because of voter fraud.

I kid you not.

“It prevents fraud at the ballot box," Woodfill said. "If you revert back to paper, you have a lot of the issues involving voter fraud.”

County Democratic Party Chair Jerry Birnberg, by contrast, couldn’t be happier with the hybrid system, and paper ballots.

“Paper ballots are less vulnerable to fraud, Birnberg said.”

“‘In a paper ballot situation, you can always go back and manually recount,’ Birnberg said. ‘How do you recount an electronic voting machine?’”

How indeed?Like say, not being able to change the vote numbers in the little cartridges that are loaded into the vote counter. Like having a “paper trail.”

The contrast couldn’t be clearer. Republicans prefer voting machines because paper ballots are more vulnerable to voter fraud. Democrats prefer paper ballots because voting machines are more vulnerable to voter fraud.

That and the fact that a 100% voting machine environment in Harris County would mean long lines and frustrated voters all across Harris County, something that Republicans not only look forward to, but actually count on.

The verdict is still not in on how the fire at the Harris County warehouse got started. I have my suspicions, but that is neither here nor there. What is important now is to realize that whoever conceived of this failed to realize that when news hits the streets that Harris County, the most populous voter concentration in the state lost each and every one of their voting machines in a fire at a warehouse where a Republican was responsible for their storage – keeping all of their eggs in one basket, as it were – it is obvious that the Republican County Clerk will bend over backwards to alleviate the situation That she will go into panic mode to do it. And in doing so, go against the express wishes of her party chair.

Because not to do this practically invites the Justice Department to take over the whole election process in Harris County.

I guess they should have thought of that before striking that match.

Charity Strikes a Blow Against Illegal Immigrants

You have to love charities in Texas.

They are so . . . Texan.

Texans, you see, make a great show of being against illegal immigration. They elect state and federal legislators who make it their business to wave the bloody shirt of illegal immigration whenever possible, especially to redirect one’s attention from things that they really care about.

Really bad things that they really care about.

This doesn’t keep Texans from hiring illegal immigrants at rates far below minimum wage for unskilled labor (or what would be considered fair in skilled construction jobs) everywhere you look. Texans love illegal labor. They hate illegal immigrants.

So it comes as little surprise that a well known holiday charity whose famous logo consists of a Santa ringing a tiny bell next to a red kettle, the Salvation Army, requires a Social Security number or a birth certificate from each and every needy child who steps forward with a small hand (maybe a small brown hand) outstretched.

They claim that they are merely trying to deter fraud. Fraud in getting more than one gift from more than one outlet.

This speaks so much to the voter fraud argument of the rightwing in attempting to deny, year after year, people of the right to vote, that attempting the argument here merely insults the intelligence of most people who have a grain of compassion in them.

Really. Christmas Gift Fraud?

Where will this insanity end?

Indiana Voter ID Law Struck Down . . . For Now

Here in Texas we have been watching as Indiana wrestles with its Voter ID law, which up until today was the law of the land in the Hoosier State. Up until today, voters in Indiana were made to provide some evidence that they were citizens of the United States and residents of Indiana.

Today an Indiana Court of Appeals struck down the Indiana law.

We in Texas are watching this because every time we have had a legislature working the past few sessions Republicans have attempted to force through a Voter ID bill of their own. In 2007 it passed in the State House and failed in the State Senate by one vote cast from a hospital bed occupied by Senator Mario Gallegos. A hospital bed wheeled into the Senate chamber for just such a purpose. In the legislative session just ended in late May, the Senate passed a rule allowing a less than 60% vote in order to bring a single bill to the Senate floor – that bill being the Voter ID bill. However, with near parity in the House this past year, it was the Democratic state reps with a thin margin of Republicans that blocked this heinous bill from passage.

So when a Voter ID bill comes under judicial review, we take notice.

In April 2008, the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold the Indiana law, finding that Indiana’s law is a reasonable reaction to the threat of voter fraud. Wrote Justice Stevens:

“The application of the statute to the vast majority of Indiana voters is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process.”

That notwithstanding, the League of Women Voters challenged the law under a new argument, the argument being a local one.

From the Indianapolis Star:

“The three-judge panel unanimously held that the requirement that voters present government-issued photo identification at the polls runs afoul of the Indiana Constitution's ‘Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause,’ which provides: ‘The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.’”

The argument goes that since the decision is a result of a judicial review of the law based on state-based claims, that the law flouts the state’s constitution, that the US Supreme Court cannot review the ruling of the Court of Appeals.

We’ll see.

First, all Indiana’s legislature has to do is alter the constitution to fix the things that the appeals court identified as being unconstitutional.

Such as requiring absentee voters also to provide proof of identity and requiring residents of a state-licensed care facility to provide proof identity, even though the polling place is in their care facility.

These were the two exceptions that were cited by the League of Women’s Voters that provided an “unequal privilege and immunity” in Indiana.

So really, this doesn’t do a thing for us in Texas. I am happy for the voters of Indiana, but await their retrogressive legislature to close the loophole on this.

I also suspect that the US Supreme Court will look askance on the view that this decision cannot be ruled on by the federal court, and therefore overturned. It is, after all, a court that was appointed by largely Republican presidents, and a court that has made federal intervention in state matters a matter of course. No matter what the Republicans say in public about states’ rights, it’s not about that at all.

It’s about who is in power.

The Inside Man

Oh, this is timely. I just had a dental procedure today and I am not up to my usual drollery. The Lone Star Project, however, has bailed me out.

They just put up on You Tube a short movie about the scandalous behavior of Harris County Tax Assessor Collector Leo Vasquez (although I am betting that former Tax Collector Paul Bettencourt has his dirty little hands in this, too), who harbors an “Inside Man” in protecting Associate Voter Registrar Ed Johnson.

Johnson is actually a Republican paid political consultant who works for State Rep Duane Bohac’s political consulting company Campaign Data Systems, previously blogged on here a month ago.

He is directly responsible for 83,000 Harris County voters not being able to vote last November.

And very probably responsible for the election of several of his clients through his work as “The Inside Man” at the Harris County registrar’s office.

You just can’s miss this, it makes the case for voter suppression (and even voter fraud) so well to a dark and ominous music score, you have to see it.

So here it is embedded below.

Point of Order Will Kill Voter ID Bill

State Rep Jim Dunnam (D - Waco) has identified an error in the process to bring the Voter ID bill, SB 362 by Todd Smith, up for a vote in the House.

It is certain to kill the bill, thus saving the state of Texas from having to spend time and treasure defending itself in court as a certain to succeed lawsuit is filed to challenge the legality of the bill.

The error? House rules say that the minutes of the House Elections Committee meetings on the bill must be filed within three days of the end of committee hearings. According to the time/date stamp on the minutes, they were actually filed 4 days late, after 7 days.

That’s a violation of the rules, and we don’t violate the rules.

House Democrats are so confident that this technicality will kill the bill that they are no longer throwing up obstacles to bringing the bill to the House floor for a vote.

So read ‘em and weep voter suppressing Republicans. When you deal the hand you don’t get to complain about the cards that were dealt to you.

Texas to Ratify 24th Amendment?

State Rep Alma Allen is trying, for the third consecutive legislative session to get Texas to ratify the 24^th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Texas is one of 9 other states that have yet to ratify that amendment, an amendment pushed by then-President Lyndon Johnson. An amendment that outlawed poll taxes.

1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Only 5 states had poll taxes when the amendment became part of the Constitution. Texas was one of them.

According to Alma Allen, who paid her first poll tax when she was 21 years old, Texas’ tax was $1.50, which would be about $11 in 2009 dollars.

Now the reasons Allen wants to get this vote are all symbolic ones.

“It’s the principle,” Allen said.

I find it ironic that Allen is getting 100% in the House at a time when it is again considering passing what amounts to a poll tax in the Voter ID Bill, SB 362.

A bill that requires that voters identify themselves with a photo ID.

A photo ID that they have to pay a fee for.

Obviously there are a bunch of state reps in Austin who just don’t see it that way.

Or maybe they do, and by voting for ratification they are simply saying that they were AGAINST a poll tax before they were FOR it.

In Texas They Just Want to See Your Papers

Want to vote in Texas? There are some around there who don’t want you to do that. Mainly because they are afraid that you won’t vote for the proper candidate. For the correct ballot proposition.

They’re afraid of what would happen if you voted the way you want to, rather than the way they want you to.

Like how they might not be able to hold office anymore.

So to conquer their fears, they make you afraid instead. They spread wild rumors of rampant voter fraud, Mexicans streaming into the state to cast their illicit ballots using easy to forge voter registration cards.

And who knows, maybe Muslims, too.

Muslims look a lot like Mexicans, you know. A lot of them have brown skin, just like Mexicans.

They tell you these things and people become afraid, and people who are afraid sometimes do foolish things. Like support the passage of a law requiring all voters to present a photo ID at the polls.

An ID that they have to pay for.

In Texas, right now, a voter registration card is free. No one pays a thing in order to vote. That all has to stop, these people say. The voters should pay money in order to vote. And if they don’t want to pay this money, or can’t for some reason, then they don’t get to vote.

And that changes the profile of the average voter in Texas. It lightens the average Texas voter’s skin color, for one thing. And maybe it reddens the average Texas voter’s politics.

Texans want to see your papers. Apparently the desire transcends from the voting booth to the grave. Now it appears that in death you will still need to carry your papers. They’re trying to make it a law that all corpses buried in Texas will have their IDs on them. A headstone isn’t enough, they say, because what if there’s a hurricane?

I tell you, Texans just want to see your papers.

Voter ID Bill Hogs the Headlines in the Texas Legislature Today

The Texas Voter ID bill, known as SB 362, filed by State Senator Troy Fraser (R – Horseshoe Bay) has finally made it to the state house for a hearing on the House’s Elections Committee.

Preventing the passage of this heinous attempt to disenfranchise key (Democratic) populations in the State Senate was a non-starter this year. Rules developed at the beginning of the legislative session made sure of that by engineering a rule to allow a mere majority vote for this particular matter only in order to bring it to the senate floor for a vote.

And with a 19-12 majority in the State Senate, Republicans had no problem passing this abomination right down party lines.

Now we are starting to see the same thing occur in the House. The House committee on Elections has a 5-4 Republican majority, and committee chairman Todd Smith (R-Euless) led a committee that formed a partisan skirmish line.

The committee, in hearing expert testimony, heard arguments that passage of the bill would, and wouldn’t affect whether a qualified voter would be discouraged from registering or voting at the polls.

Committee Chairman Todd Smith, throwing up his hands in a show of anti-bipartisanship, doubts that the bill would have any impact on voter turnout:

"My sense is that both sides are guilty of speculating [on voter turnout] without any substantial evidence to suggest this will have any meaningful impact on turnout one way or the other.”

In addition, according to the Dallas Morning News, Smith “took strong exception to Democratic arguments that there is no evidence of serious voter fraud in Texas. To bolster his case, he read through a litany of supposed voter fraud incidents – a few from Texas but most in other states.”

But I have to say, the real fun, and the prize for originality in crafting a political argument goes to Leo Berman (R - Tyler), who has an interesting and totally original take on why there are so few county DAs prosecuting cases of voter fraud in Texas. From the Austin American-Statesman:

“There's so much fraud that even the district attorney or the attorney general won't prosecute it," Berman said. "If they did, they'd have to stop prosecuting murderers and rapists.”

Darn it. I knew that’s why there were so many people out there who think there is rampant voter fraud in Texas. There is. There is so much out there that DAs can’t prosecute them for fear of letting off murderers, rapists and unrestrained criminal roofing contractors.

Come to think of it, that’s probably why no one has ever interviewed a space alien. There are so many out there that to interview any at all would sorely tax our tabloid reporters who are already beset in keeping up with the antics of Angelina and Brad, Madonna, Dr. Phil’s wife, and Bat Boy.

So, I don’t know, in the logic and reasoning category it seems to be a toss-up between State Rep. Berman and his main, and still living nearest competitor: Professor Irwin Corey.

Texas Senate Passes Voter ID Bill

We have Bob Sargent to thank for putting this whole voter ID thing in perspective.

So surprise, surprise, the Senate voted to pass the bill, SB 362, by a vote of 20 to 12.

That's one more vote than usual because when the Senate meets as a "committee of the whole" the Lt. Governor gets to vote, too.

This vote, then, goes down as the Senate equivalent of a runaway girl's basketball game score.

Who is Testifying at the Senate Hearing on the Voter ID Bill - - - and Who Is Not.

The call out to the public to come to Austin today to give testimony before the Texas Senate on the Voter ID bill, SB 362, currently being considered, was a rousing success. At last count, 120 individuals signed up to address the Senate. At 3 minutes allocated for each, that is 480 minutes of individual testimony.

That’s eight hours.

Minimum (will more speakers sign up yet?).

Plus the minutes spent between speakers.

So the public, intensely interested in this veiled attempt at voter suppression in Texas, in a state that threatens to turn over the majority to Democrats for the first time since 2003, has reacted with the righteous indignation that the bill deserves.

Contrast that to two individuals who will not be showing up to give testimony in this upcoming debate: Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott, and Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.

Abbott says testimony represents a conflict as he will be having to defend the law in court when it gets challenged.

Andrade is out of town on a previous commitment.

I guess no one told Hope Andrade that this bill, if enacted into law, will have a singular effect on her office, and her ability to carry out her responsibilities in running the state’s elections. It will be people at the bottom of the Elections tree that will be having to enforce the restrictive Voter ID rules. It will be her people who will turn voters away from casting their votes at the polls.

But Andrade had a previous engagement.

Abbott, I can understand. This sleight of hand that he proffers, that he cannot comment on a bill that he is all set to support in the courts, gives one pause. Does this mean that he doesn’t really support the bill and cannot comment on it because he must do so in court? That would make more sense.

Fact is, Abbott not only supports the bill, he provides the paltry ammunition that is the bill’s reason for being: there is voter fraud in Texas and this bill will prevent that.

Fact is, if he shows his face in the Senate, he will be open to questions from Democrats who will ask what results came of his $1.4 million investigation in voter fraud in Texas. The answer, I hear, is truly embarrassing.

The point is, 120 (or so) private citizens thought it important enough to make their views heard, and probably went out of their way to do so. Getting time off on a workday is not an easy thing to do.

Abbott and Andrade would have been paid to testify.

But, those are the priorities.

Obvious, isn’t it, that there is no chance for this legislation to be defeated in the Senate, huh? Republicans are just biding their time

And ducking their responsibilities.

Nothing new under the sun.

Voter ID Debate Set to Begin Tomorrow

All year it has been like an approaching maelstrom. The Voter ID Bill, also known as SB 362 authored by Republican State Senator Troy Fraser (R – Horseshoe Bay) is set to be debated, and individuals who want to give testimony against this bill are being solicited to appear tomorrow and be heard.

The first thunderclap was a rule change in the state senate. The usual 2/3ds rule, where a bill cannot be considered in the state senate without a 2/3 majority vote, was waived on the second day of the 81^st Legislature. Now, and for this matter only, this will require only a simple majority in the Senate for the bill to be brought to the floor.

It will be remembered that during the last legislative session, a similar voter ID bill was turned aside in the senate by a single vote, that of State Senator Carlos Uresti, who took a gamble with his very life and had his hospital bed trundled into the senate to cast his vital “No” vote to prevent the bill from being debated in the Senate.

Senator Uresti was recovering from a very recent liver transplant operation.

So the bill is a shoe-in in the state senate, with a 19-12 Republican majority.

The state house, though, is a whole different animal.

With a very tight 76-74 majority in the House, Republicans are less assured of a victory there.

Especially given the past performance of two returning Republican State Reps, Rep. Delwin Jones (R – Lubbock), and Rep. Tommy Merritt (R - Longview). Both Jones and Merritt voted against the 2007 Voter ID bill.

This article in the Austin American-Statesman reveals that while neither of them will say how they will vote in the upcoming foecal storm, saying that they are going to wait and see what happens in the Senate, Jones has said in the past that poll workers would be harder to recruit if they were required to ask for the proper photo ID from voters, adding “I haven't seen any strong evidence of illegal voting.”

By the same token, Senator Merritt seems to be equally lukewarm to the notion of having a voter ID law in Texas: “The party is not focused on what's important to the people.” Of greater interest to his constituents, claims Merritt, are “economic woes, the decline in their 401K funds and how to survive in retirement”

And it is true that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Texas, the condition that SB 362 seeks to remedy. Despite the excessive efforts of Texas AG Gregg Abbott, who has, according to reports, spent $1.4 million investigating alleged voter fraud cases throughout the state, he has yet to come up with a single voter fraud case. Abbott has not seen one successful prosecution, only a bunch of harried senior citizens of the minority persuasion.

That and a set of suspect documents from South Texas. Documents suspected to be doctored.

Whatever the outcome, tomorrow will be a display of vintage Texas Politics, the politics that make you cringe when the Legislature comes in session, and the politics that make you wish for a real legislature made up of people who spend all of their time in public service.

And are paid a living wage for the service.