Well, After All, California is a Foreign State
Okay, so there’s the woman in Austin who wants to vote. She’s from California and her driver’s license is from California. But, she lives in Texas. She owns property in both states and goes back and forth but she wants to vote in Texas.
So, after some enormous hassle she gets all the documentation she needs to get a Texas ID from the Department of Public Safety.
So she goes to a DPS office in South Austin to apply. Not so fast, Little Lady.
The clerk left for a few minutes, then told her to take a seat. At that point, Messinger said, a state trooper summoned her into his back office, saying he needed to speak to her. Once inside his office, Messinger said the trooper insisted on seeing all the documentation she had brought, and demanded to know where she lives and pays taxes. He even told her she could be jailed for driving with a California license. It is illegal to drive in Texas on another state’s driver’s license 90 days after moving into the state.
She got so rattled that she left without getting an ID.
Hell, Honey, that’s in the Texas Constitution that people from California can’t vote here. You just mosey on back to El Lay and smoke some funky weed and leave us good Christian people alone. Or we’ll shoot ya after we jail ya.
Thanks to Jeanne for the heads up.
No way! This occurred because she was registering as a democrat!!!!!
1South Austin is a lib-central. A lib can’t vote. Mission Accomplished.
2Now this is where the lady takes the galoot’s advice and pulls herself and her wallet out of Texas, all to the disadvantage of Texas. ‘Course, the galoot would never think of that, would he! Damn sorry for this woman being treated like that and I live in a different state about a thousand miles away and we’ve got our own voter ID problems here.
3That is why I use my passport as my ID when I vote.
A passport has no address on it.
Of course, not everyone has that option. But I do it just to mess with the poll workers. The last time I voted the poll worker looked at every page of my passport looking for an address. Then he asked me where I lived. And I said “My address is unchanged.” So he read off the address on the registration card and looked at me quizzically. I smiled and nodded. He let it go, but I’m just waiting for one of them to pick a fight with me.
I am required to prove my identification with a photo, but I don’t have to prove my address to anyone.
4I bet it was the same office I had a go-round with 5 years ago. I went to renew my license and was told “My citizenship status was in question”
5I said it was a driver’s license not a citizen license. I had to bring my original Austrian birth certificate(in German), the original notarized English translation thereof, my State Department form showing I am an American citizen by birth, and my DD-214 from the Air Force. The person at the counter had to call in her stuporvisor, who then had to call in his stuporvisor before they reluctantly approved.
I mentioned that I had a Top Secret clearance in the Air force and I didn’t have to go through all that.
Mike, my sincere sympathy! Everyone in my area has numerous different drivers licenses because they have been constantly transferred back and forth between states. Changing a drivers license within 90 days after transfer is too often a waste of time and energy cuz they could be transferred again on the 91st day. I have a passport, too. I hate to carry it around with me and possibly loose it or taken by a thief.
6Texas Residency Requirement for Driver Licenses and ID Cards
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverLicense/residencyReqNonCDL.htm
7When you bring in your birth certificate how do they know it’s your footprint on the certificate?
8Vote with a absentee ballot!
Fred, your method is by far the simplest and most effective way to defeat Voter ID laws.
I only use the passport because I am an agitator and I love the interaction of voting in person.
9Good grief. Add a story to the book you’re working on, someone out there. Will that be in the chapter about Texas residency or the chapter about ornery Texans who throw their weight around? What are they afraid of anyway? Oh I forgot, folks with brown skins.
10Is there any way at all to cure stupid?
I just wonder sometimes. Geesh.
11According to the link posted by Angelo, a passport is not accepted by Texas, probably because it doesn’t have an address. Actually, there is a place for an address, but they tell you to write it in pencil, because passports are good for 10 years. It’s just so that they have a place to mail it if you lose it.
12At least when my husband was on active duty in the Air Force, military people usually voted in their home state. Of course absentee voting is a hassle, but it can be done.
Also military families were able to keep driver’s licenses from wherever. He was legally a Pennsylvania resident, at least that was where he was from, but I’m pretty sure his driver’s license was from Texas because that’s where he was stationed when he got it. I don’t remember any hassles over it then, but that was years ago. The car tag was from Mississippi because that was where he bought the car, but I think military didn’t have to keep changing these either. Hope that hasn’t changed.
Another note: I did not realize it at the time, but until Texas passed a state ERA my legal residence was my husband’s! I had never lived in Pennsylvania and had little interest in their politics, but I suppose I voted illegally if I voted in Texas elections during the time we were stationed in Mississippi (don’t remember voting during that time, though my father paid my poll tax so I could).
13Just to clarify.
To get an ID from the DPS you must establish “your identity, U.S. citizenship or lawful presence status, and Texas residency.” A passport is acceptable for establishing citizenship but not residency.
The requirements for voting are not the same. You must show
Texas driver license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
14Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
Texas personal identification card issued by DPS
Texas concealed handgun license issued by DPS
United States military identification card containing the person’s photograph
United States citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph
United States passport
Fred Farklestone, the birth certificate with the footprint on it is no good for establishing identity through DPS to get the EIC. They want the certified one from the county courthouse. That’s one reason so many people are opposed. Those cost extra money, assuming the registration every made it to the courthouse.
15Seems like i read the other day that several other states which have had trouble because of their trying to keep some folks from voting, they all had a long list of okay IDs for voters to use. Texas does not accept all of those, which is why the courts got cranky about voters’ rights. I really don’t think most folks realize that. They all say “well, the gummint has the right to know if you are a citizen”. I bet lots of folks also don’t know that folks in jail who are waiting for trial should be able to vote. If I’m wrong, correct me. I don’t know anyone who went down to the jail to register voters.
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