Voting
I suspect you’ve heard by now that Texas Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott got hoisted on his own petard. In one of those fabulous instant karma moments, the man behind Texas voter ID only got to vote through an amendment passed by Wendy Davis.
Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican who’s expected to get the party nod to face the Democratic senator next year, also will have to attest to his identity when he votes, according to campaign spokesman Matt Hirsch.
That’s because, like Davis, Abbott has a different name on his driver license than that on the voter rolls.
On his driver license, he’s Gregory Wayne Abbott, Hirsch said. In the voter registration file, he’s simply Greg Abbott.
Under the law (through an amendment offered by Davis, D-Fort Worth, to the measure she opposed), voters whose recorded names differ slightly in this way can vote if they sign an affidavit.
Were it not for Wendy Davis, Greg Abbott wouldn’t have gotten to vote last week. Let’s pause for a moment and try to decide if Davis did the right thing or should have kept her mouth shut.
And now there’s this: 90 year old Texas legend and former Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Jim Wright, was denied a voter ID card by the department of public safety.
Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card Saturday at a Texas Department of Public Safety office.
“Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID,” Wright said.
The legendary Texas political figure says that he has worked things out with DPS and that he will get a state-issued personal identification card in time for him to vote Tuesday in the state and local elections.
He had an expired driver’s license and a TCU facility ID card, but those things helped him diddle squat.
Luckily, Wright has an assistant and a personal driver to help him wade through the paperwork. Not many Texas Democrats do.
And that was the whole plan.
Delicious!
1When you lay minefields for others, you set off some unintended explosions…often under your own feet.
Could not happen to better people, although there are more of them who also need to feel that sudden airborne feeling of the political petard going off.
2As they say: Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?
3Greg Abbutt? His name ends in a bowel, so of course he’s a RRWNJ!
4@Charles: “Ends in a bowel.” Classic. Truly classic!
(Still giggling.)
5Charles you have spoiled me for the rest of the day. Can’t think of anything but that bowel joke.
6Sen. Van de Putte has a huge debate on her FB page right now because she had to sign an affidavit to vote. Some woman named Mona got real nasty with me because I wrote that my license didn’t match exactly with my voters card. According to Mona in her infinite Christian Republican wisdom, I am an irresponsible lazy deadbeat loser because my IDs don’t match. I’m scurrying over to let Mona know that Greggy boy is an irresponsible deadbeat loser. Hee hee.
7Hey, if you think this is bad consider what a window will have to go through as she tries to switch the title of the family car from his name to hers etc. and she has to show all sorts of proof of her own identity and at least one of those proofs will have a somewhat different version of her name. I had to go through this in my own state. One thing the state agreed on and accepted was the death certificate but Social Security insisted I prove I was married to my late husband of 44 years by ponying up a copy of the marriage license. They looked at the name on the license and then cross checked it with the driver’s license etc. Result? And this is a quote, “close enough” but it took them long enough to say that! Gads!
8When I voted early on Friday a woman in front of me had to go the affidavit route. It appeared the clerks working there not only intentionally made it a difficult process for her but also created an embarrassing moment for the poor lady in front of others waiting to cast their ballots. Texas has not only brought back voter suppression but also reintroduced voter intimidation at it’s polling places.
9I had to sign an affidavit but that wasn’t a big problem. They had a little computer where they could fix my voter registration card to match my driver’s license. The problem I had was that I had in my stack of papers on the dining room table at home an unused mail-in ballot. I couldn’t vote until I went home and brought back the mail-in ballot which I had gotten just in case….you know, I’m an old lady, one never knows what will be happening on Election Day. Anyway I got to vote and they got to have my unused mail in ballot and we all lived happily ever after. TELL FOLKS TO TAKE THEIR UNUSED BALLOTS WITH THEM IF THEY HAVE ONE so they can turn it in.
10Hope the courts are in session on Tuesday to grant injunctive relief to voters who are unjustly denied their ballots. I can smell the meat a-cookin’ already!
11How are folks supposed to know that courts can throw their weight around on Tuesday? I didn’t know that.
12How are folks supposed to know that courts can throw their weight around on Tuesday? I didn’t know that.
Something else: that polling place where I voted also told everyone the last two elections that we HAD to have a photo ID to vote, even before the law was settled. I went up and down the line telling folks that they didn’t have to have a photo ID but the poll folks just kept their signs up. Other polling places here did not do that, I don’t think.
13This is all well & good but if you are elderly, a non driver and live in one of the 183 Texas counties which do not have a DMV to go have your picture taken – then I guess you don’t deserve to have a vote.
14After a big hassle over trading in a car that was in my husband’s name when a new one we had ordered came in, and he was out of state on reserve duty, I put the new car in “his name” OR “my name” The person writing the title asked was I sure, since then either could sell the car without the other’s permission. I said yes, to save such a hassle. Every car we owned after that was titled that way. When we divorced years later we haggled over other things but not the cars. Might be a good idea for others.
15My husband insisted that I always have my own assets in my name. We do confer on major purchases but he stays out of it otherwise. When we moved to west Texas many years ago, the local grocer thought it was strange that my checking account was in my name: “Aren’t you subject to your husband?” I said yes, I am; he told me I had to have my own checking account so I do.
16I voted early on Thursday at the Travis County annex offices on airport, and the names on my ID and voter registration did not match. Didn’t have to complete an affadavit, but did complete a form to obtain a changed voter registration certificate.
17Too bad Mr. Wright only had his expired DL and a TCU id. If he had a concealed weapons license, he could’ve voted without difficulty. This is a truly crazy state.
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