Voter ID Trial Starts Today
The State of Texas goes to trial today to try to abolish the Voters Rights Act of 1965.
The Republican Party of Texas doesn’t like it much because it means that people can vote. They are not big on this whole voting thing. You know, for you. And although photo IDs are easily faked – just ask any teenager – and non-citizens can get driver’s licenses and even handgun permits in Texas, the photo ID thing seems kinda silly. And in the case of older Texans, it means they have to get a certified birth certificate, which costs money, making it a poll tax.
Rumor has it that Aaron Pena is hiding undocumented workers in his pants.
The Republicans got a Hispanic to agree with them. Turncoated Republican State Rep Aaron Peña, who looks like he ate his brother and half of precinct 23 in Hildalgo county, is going to take the stand to say that old grandmas shouldn’t be voting and student and veteran IDs are worthless. However, a handgun permits lets you vote twice.
The trial will last a week and smart money will be watching smart guy Michael Li follow the trial.
If Republicans get this photo ID thing approved, everybody in country has to send money to Texas to get every Democrat in Texas a handgun permit. I’ll explain it all later, but I have a good plan.
In the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law proposed by Greg Abbott, the State of Texas actually states that 92 year old Dorthy Tate is not being prejudiced by the Texas voter id law because she can vote by mail https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxeOfQQnUr_gRmZQSGtNN1IzSmM/edit Greg Abbott is not the smartest lawyer out there but this is a dumb claim even for Greg. Ms. Tate does not have a birth certificate and has no way of getting the “free” id from the state of Texas needed to vote. If this law goes into effect, Ms. Tate may only vote by mail and will not be allowed to go to the polling place to vote. If Ms. Tate is a dangerous person who must be denied the right to vote, then why is it okay for her to vote by mail (the Texas equivalent of absentee voting).
1A handgun permit sounds like a good idea. If I get one, do I also have to get a handgun?
2meanwhile back at the heavily padded study in Stately Hacienda Mike…
I have never been mistaken for a Greg Abbott fan. He seems greasy slimey to me when he’s on the tube trying to splain the latest AG office action I disagreed with. Kinda like old time salesmen. Say “Greg Abbott” and my mind substitutes am image of Herb Tarlek. My problem not his.
When I managed a project for a local county about 8 or 10 years ago, I suggested using a DL swipe as a quick way of looking up the voter. The County Administrator John Wayned that idea in a New York second. We can’t legally use a voter’s DL he said. Not at all, even to speed up the process I asked. No. Wow now that the T’s have a “reason” to use the DL everyone is jumping through their a$$es to use it. A good reason isn;t a reason but an evil hateful reason is????
3meanwhile back at the heavily padded study in Stately Hacienda Mike…
@MaryK, you can borrow 2 or 3 from me.
I like to help keep the statistical category, average number of handguns owned by progressive voters, up. In particular because the thugs writing on the conservative blogs have gotten it into their otherwise empty heads that progressives don;t own guns. They are oh so wrong.
4@Kyle: Everyone in my state votes by mail. I think it’s great. No standing in line, and you get about two weeks to fill out your ballot over morning coffee or whatever. If one can’t pay postage to return one’s ballot, there are boxes set up where one can drop one’s ballot for no charge. Or, the ballot can be dropped off at the county election office. Voters are vetted by their signature on the back of the return envelope. Plus, a paper ballot trail is much better than electronic Diebold machines. I would not want to have to go back to voting at polling places.
5At times like this I take back every lawyer joke I ever told. And I remember that the only thing that can save us now is a handful of good lawyers.
6Here in Pennsyltucky, not only did one of the Republican legislators admit that the purpose of the Voter ID law is to help Romney, but the Republican governor refuses to consider delaying implementation despite the fact that a cross-check between the voter db and the Dept. of Trans. db finds that 1 out of 10 registered voters does not have a DOT issued ID card much less a driver’s license. Given that the law requires an ID with an address that matches the voter registration address, my neighbor who is a snow bird and migrates between here and Mississippi keeps her auto registered in Mississippi along with her driver’s license but is registered to vote in PA. I’m sure that she is not the only migratory bird who winters in the warmer areas and summers where it’s less oppressively hot.
Oh, and remember that this is one of those ALEC promoted laws funded by Koch money. [Insert expletive of choice here]!!
7Iris
Unlike Oregon, most people in Texas vote in person and there are some hassles in voting by mail. You have to request the ballot in accordance with a somewhat inconvienent timetable and make sure that it is returned in time for the vote to count. Absentee voting is still used by mainly by GOP voters which is why this form of voting was exempted from the voter suppression/id law.
Again, if Ms. Tates should not be allowed to vote in person, then why it is okay for her to vote by mail. The availability of voting by mail does not mean that Ms. Tates is not being affected by this voter suppression law.
8A catch 22 in Mississippi.
State officials are running into problems with the new voter-identification law even before the federal government has approved or rejected it. Voters without a photo ID are facing a circular problem: They need a certified birth certificate to get the voter ID, and they need a photo ID to get the birth certificate.
Pamela Weaver, spokeswoman of the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, today confirmed the catch-22 problem, which the Jackson Free Press learned about from a complaint posted on Facebook. One of the requirements to get the free voter ID cards is a birth certificate, but in order to receive a certified copy of your birth certificate in Mississippi, you must have a photo ID. Not having the photo ID is why most people need the voter ID in the first place. #The acceptable forms of identification to receive a birth certificate are the same as the acceptible voter ID forms, with the additions of an alien registration certificate, a permanent residence card and a temporary resident card.
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news…er-id-hurdles/
The return of JIM CROW!
9I was amused to see that Greg Abbott had outside counsel open this case. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78242_Page2.html
The outside counsel is claiming that no registered voter lacks the required photo ids and the DOJ is claiming that up to 1.4 million voters lack the ID. Given that the State of Texas has in effect admitted that one lady does not have the necessary Id and she can not get the necessary ID due to a lack of a birth certificate, the claims of the counsel for the state of Texas do not sound like they will hold up
10I’m still waiting for Juanita Jean’s plan to get gun permits for Texans (or at least Democrats in Texas). I’m ready to write a letter to the editor challenging all the white Republicans with the idea that all the brown and black people in Texas will soon have gun permits of their own! Won’t *that* delight East Texas, and points south!
11George, I’m working on it this weekend. I promise.
12