Okay, here’s the deal.

The Texas Lege, in its semi-tragic ignorant  Republican glory, has decided that we just absolutely have to do something about this letting people vote thing just because they have a valid voter certificate.  Outside of your government issued voter certificate, they have decided that you must have one of  the following items to present at the polling place in order to vote in Texas.

A valid Texas drivers license
A DPS-issued election identification certificate
A United States passport
A United States  military ID card
A license to carry a concealed handgun issued by the Department of Public Safety.

A valid college issued photo ID card won’t work. But a concealed handgun permit will.

Hal got a handle on this thing.  Only one of those five items does not require you to produce proof of citizenship.

It’s the license to carry.  You do not have to prove citizenship to get a license to carry a gun in Texas. On September 10, 2001 Mohamed Atta could have gotten a license to carry in Texas.

By the way, the DPS will issue an  identification certificate for free to people over 70 years of age, but they require a valid birth certificate, which costs $22.  That’s a poll tax.

Thanks to Bubba for cahootin’ with Hal about this.