What’s in a Name?
A little seriousness.
Before I start this I want to make something very clear: I oppose voter ID laws. Completely. Totally. Without reservation.
That said, I think we should concentrate on important issues surrounding them and exploit loopholes when we can. Running around hollering, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” simply suppresses Democratic turnout and fulfills the Republican notion that we’re overreacting.
The latest complaint is that women are being targeted for voter ID because supposedly only 66% of women have an ID that reflects their current name. Folks are saying that if your voter registration card doesn’t match the name on your driver’s license, you won’t be allowed to vote or that you will have to vote a provisional ballot.
That’s almost true.
However, when the Secretary of State conducted training for election judges in Austin, Texas, it was made very clear that if a woman’s driver’s license and her voter registration has the same first name, address, and DOB, she can sign an affidavit attesting that she is the same person and then she can vote a regular ballot. I know that’s a hassle that women shouldn’t have to do and we should fight it.
Ask women to re-register to vote in the same name that’s on her driver’s license or give her the information she needs to vote a regular ballot. But, please, pretty please, don’t tell her she can’t vote. Unless she’s wearing a “Ted Cruz for God, Junior” button and then softly inform he that she’s going to hell.
Thanks for your cooperation.
That should definitely be made clear in every precinct, perhaps with posters?
1Oh boy. Be sure and research the items on the ballot then take your whatevers and go vote, by golly. Make noise. As Krugman said recently, get shrill. And I have to say again, and you’ll get tired of it, remember that the Koch brothers spent $20,000 to help campaign in favor of Proposition 6, what they want in the Texas constitution. If it is dirty literally or figuratively, you can bet the famous brothers are checking it out. So far they haven’t bought my bank or threatened to. “My” being like I leave my monthly checks there. If all the women in Texas voted, and/or the Hispanics, things would look different. Remember, that lady I met who works in the Texas assistant AG’s office thinks that men do a better job governing because women get too emotional. Huh. Oh, and remember you also ain’t gonna be able to vote if your shirt says something political on it. Serious.
2Well Marge, you can always take off your shirt!
Or probly more to the point: turn it inside out.
3Or wear something else, or vote absentee. So far as I know, the postal service can’t tell what you wear when you put a letter in the mailbox. But what do I know.
4If anyone finds a size 4 knitting needle lying/floating around, it’s mine. I lost it yesterday. I even tried to replace it. There was no parking along or around Congress Avenue. sigh. I know. I shoulda taken a bus.
I set up a bank account with my former married name as a middle name so my daughter’s checks written on the account would not be questioned. This was suggested by the bank as a way to expedite payment. I renewed my drivers license 9 years ago with the same name. Our “in the toilet for tea party” newspaper ran a notice on what your I.D. should look like. It said if your name on your D.L. and the name on the voter registration do not match you will be supplied a provisional ballot. Mine did not, and I’ve voted in the same precinct for 19 years. I registered with my maiden name and married name which is on my SS; passport and all legal docs.
I proceeded to the registrar’s office and showed them my D.L. and voter registration. They said since they don’t match I would have to vote provisionally. I asked what I should do to make them match. She said change your name to what’s on the D.L. So I put all four of my names on the name change (4 names) request. She checked her computer and said the computer program has four fields for info but only prints three on the registration card.
5The Republican/Tea Party’s new slogan is “if you can’t beat em, cheat em”.
6We need to update the Voter Bill of Rights to reflect this ruling and to pass copies out to voters.
7I reregistered and got a new voter’s id card to match my DL, too. I vote every time, also. My DL had my middle name, cause it’s my middle name, that’s what I give if someone asks my middle name. My DL has my maiden name as my middle because they did it that way years ago.
8Only 66% of women remember to get their name changed on the drivers license after they marry? Only 66%? They have to be kidding. Every married woman I know who did not keep her previous last name changed all of her documents. Women are not lazy about this, but that is the way the Rethugs are seeing it and mis-using this perspective. I also know women who married in states that allowed a married woman to retain her maiden name. Apparently Texas is not one of them?
9One of the Fort Bend election judges confirmed that the Fort Bend Election office is following the Sec. of State guidelines. This should help some
10However…if your county clerk (or whoever does this) puts the wrong DOB on your records (it’s not on your voter registration, so you don’t know it’s wrong until you get to the polls) then the DOB on the driver’s license won’t match the DOB on the county records, and you won’t be on the list at the polls. Happened to me last year in the general election. I never, NEVER gave anyone any other than my actual birthdate, the one that’s on my driver’s license. So how did my birthdate suddenly move from March to July in the county records? Was it a careless error or intentional? I filled out a form with the correct birthdate (AGAIN!) but of course received no word on whether the change was made.
I’m inclined to think intentional. This is the not the first time I have had trouble voting since the Republicans took over Williamson County. I’ve lived in the same location for years, but a few years back was told that my location no longer qualified me to vote in a city election. (Yes, dammit, it does.) I asked who made that determination and was told the county EMS. EMS? Why the !**! would they be making a determination of who can vote in a city election? No answer. I never could track down either the reasoning or an actual individual person who would take responsibility for the decision, but I got it reversed.
Turns out someone at the county had unilaterally decided that if your house was split by the city limits, the old rule (whether the bedrooms were in or out of the city) no longer applied, and you were supposed to opt-in if you wanted to be considered eligible to vote in city elections. Since I’d been a city council member (and my husband is now) and no notice was ever given that this was the new case…I was mad.
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