Black & White and Cardinal Red All Over

Texas Legislature’s Racist Voter ID bill

The Texas legislature finished up its business last week without getting to some pretty important legislation. Since the legislature only meets every two years, we may be in for a long wait on additional children’s health care and a few other pieces of business. Why would that be of concern, you ask? The only reason that the usually efficient legislature got bogged down is that Senate Republicans pulled a Tom DeLay power play to jam thru a piece of legislation they couldn’t ordinarily get passed because the rules would have given enough power to the minority Democrats to stop it. They jammed the bill thru by changing the rules because they could not get the bill thru any other way. The result of this tactic is the slowdown of the rest of the session once the bill came up on the calendar of The House. Democrats talked every bill to death even the ones that would have passed on a voice vote with no debate just to keep the bill from ever seeing the light of day.

What was this infamous bill? A Voter ID bill. Why would this be a problem in Texas? It isn’t but republicans see the tide is turning against them and their base is slowly being overcome by the Democratic base and they want to stem that tide if they can. The only way they can do it is to keep people from voting. The obvious tactics of trimming the voter registration lists the way that Jeb Bush did in Florida to get his brother elected in 2000 has been tried already. Folks are wise to that maneuver. They are also wise to the phony voter registration drives where they sign people up to vote but stamp their cards as GOP so they cannot vote in the Democratic primary. All that’s left is to subvert the on-going process in place to help wipe off long time voters that tend to lean Democratic.

The process as it stands allows for citizens to register by submitting the appropriate documentation, waiting 30 days for the local registrar to authenticate your documentation and then send you a voter’s registration card. This card is all you currently need to take to the polls. That’s not good enough for republicans. They are all hot and bothered about voter fraud even though there hasn’t been any substantial voter fraud since LBJ left the state. The Texas Secretary of State hasn’t prosecuted any cases of voter fraud where people have voted multiple times on election day or where bogus ballots were added to the mix.

He has gone after minority voters on specious and unfounded charges. After he was sued by the people he tried to intimidate, he was outed and backed down. It showed that his “prosecutions” were political witch hunts without a basis or foundation. Fast forward to the 2009 legislature: republicans, with no basis or foundation either, introduced a Voter ID Act that is as racist as the Secretary of State’s prosecutions. They insist on two forms of photo ID but still charge people to obtain that ID. That is nothing more than an old-fashioned poll tax which is unconstitutional. That little something never stopped the GOP from plunging ahead in their ever increasing attempts to fix elections and limit minority voters access to the polls.

Voter intimidation and suppression have become standard fare for republicans faced with their shrinking voter base. This is their last hurrah at maintaining control and they see the power slipping from their fingers despite everything they have tried. Texas republicans are barely holding on to power in the Legislature and the defeat of this bill could very well mark the end of their sad and tragic rule here in the Lone Star State. One can only hope.

Rick Perry could call the lege back into session to deal with hurricane relief and children’s health care but he’ll be playing with fire if he adds the racist Voter ID bill to the mix.

link: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/SB00362H.htm

supporting link: http://www.alternet.org/politics/86737/voting_rights_

lawyers_defeat_texas%27_bogus_voter_fraud_prosecutions/