Republicans who have been changing the voter ID laws to disenfranchise American voters have always responded by saying they just want to root out voter fraud. They haven't found any voter fraud, but that's beside the point. How's that working for a former legendary Congressional member?
Voter ID law snags former House Speaker Jim Wright
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.
But after the difficulty he had this weekend getting a proper ID card, Wright, 90, expressed concern that such problems could deter others from voting and stifle turnout. After spending much of his life fighting to make it easier to vote, the Democratic Party icon said he is troubled by what he’s seeing happen under the state’s new voter ID law.
“I earnestly hope these unduly stringent requirements on voters won’t dramatically reduce the number of people who vote,” Wright told the Star-Telegram. “I think they will reduce the number to some extent.”
Wright and his assistant, Norma Ritchson, went to the DPS office on Woodway Drive to get a State of Texas Election Identification Certificate. Wright said he realized earlier in the week that the photo identifications he had — a Texas driver’s license that expired in 2010 and a TCU faculty ID — do not satisfy requirements of the voter ID law, enacted in 2011 by the Legislature. DPS officials concurred.
The former Democratic Party House Speaker was disenfranchised by Republicans only looking to weed out those nonexistent fraudulent votes. Can you imagine if a Republican was disenfranchised by some democratic voter law? Hearings would have been held this weekend and a new republican bill would have already been drafter. Well, the ninety year old Wright is a Democrat so that was a good use of the law for Republicans if you ask any teabircher about it. The idea is to win at the ballot box by not letting eligible Americans vote.
Texas officials are saying all a person has to do if they have an issue is cast a provisional ballot and then get it verified within six days. Six-whole-days.
Tarrant County Elections Administrator Steve Raborn said Saturday that people who might find themselves in a similar situation should cast a provisional ballot and obtain identification needed to “cure” it within six days.
That must be very easy to do if you're the elderly who have trouble getting around, the Poors or minorities? What could be the problem? I'm sure Republicans tested out their system thoroughly before launching it. All voter ID laws are un-American and a disgrace to the US constitution.
Think Progress:
In recent weeks, the Texas law has ensnared a Texas district judge, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, a state senator, and Greg Abbott, the very attorney general pushing the law. It’s strict name requirements has made it especially hard for women to obtain an ID, since differences between maiden names and married names has caused problems. Abbott’s ID was nearly denied because his given name is Gregory but he used “Greg” on his registration card.
The law also threatens minority and low-income voters, who are less likely to have acceptable forms of identification. Academic studies have shown that to be the case in many of the other states that have instituted voter ID laws in the past. One 84-year-old woman was denied an ID three times. As Republicans continue to push these laws, though, they have struggled to find examples of the actual voter fraud they are supposed to stop.
