Requiring a person to have an ID to vote is reasonable and should have been a requirement all along. The law requiring voters to have proper photo identification was passed in Texas, but Texas is one of nine states that must have the Department of Justice approve any changes to the election laws in case of discrimination. MSNBC reports that a few weeks ago the the weeklong trial ended and has been said that the judges would like to make the ruling by Novembers elections.
"Texas currently only requires voters to show their voter registration cards, which do not have photos, or another acceptable alternative form of ID such as a driver's license or utility bill." This is a horrible system, there is no way to prove if you are the person who's name is on the card without proper identification. Fraud is a serious concern for elections because people want voting to be a fair process. The Texas attorney general's office has found many cases of voter fraud across the state including using deceased voter registration cards to city council members registering illegal immigrants.
This is a serious issue and should not be taken lightly. I believe this law can make a difference and those who don't think fraud does not play a role in the elections, look at the past decade in Texas:
"...six Texas House of Representatives races have been decided by a margin
of fewer than 50 votes in the last decade. Texas courts have overturned
at least four different elections in recent years after finding that
improper conduct affected the outcome of the election. In 2012, alone,
five local elections in Texas reportedly resulted in a tie and were
ultimately resolved by a coin toss, a dice game or a second runoff
election."
3 comments:
Let's think about exactly what we're talking about here. Laws that regulate the way that people vote dabble in an extremely sensitive issue. Historically, the most prevalent voting laws were the Jim Crow laws. In particular, the poll tax prevented many minorities from voting in the South and the Texas Democratic Party didn't allow minorities to vote in its primaries. Obviously, when changing the way that people vote, we don't want to do anything which even resembles these horrible regulations.
But that's exactly what the voter ID law does! According to an article* from the Houston Chronicle, 38.2% of registered voters who do not have photo identification are Hispanic. Compare this to the fact that 21.8% of all registered voters in Texas are Hispanic. We can clearly see that a disproportionate number of Hispanic voters do not have photo identification. This is a fact. Furthermore, it is inevitable that some fraction (and likely a significant one) of those who do not have a photo ID will either not hear about the law or will be unable to obtain an ID by the following election. Many who hear about it and are able to get an ID will still be deterred from doing so because of the time it takes to go to a DPS office and obtain an ID. The simple fact of the matter is that fewer votes would be cast in the election following the passage of this law, and a disproportionate number of those votes would have been from Hispanic voters.
Now, we can clearly ignore these unfortunate statistics if it's shown that the law is, as you say, "a must." This would be the case if there were a significant number of reported cases of voting fraud. However, you neglect to mention any such number, providing no evidence that the law is necessary at all. In fact, the article you mention** only lists six instances of voter fraud over the entire history of the attorney general's office's existence. No other numbers or statistics are given regarding the frequency of voter fraud. The article does mention, as you say, that some Texas House of Representatives elections are decided by as few as 50 votes, but if the number of fraudulent votes per election is as low as six, the probability that voter fraud could change an election's outcome is extremely small.
The given evidence shows that there is nothing suggesting that voter fraud is a problem in Texas, while enacting a counter measure to the perceived issue would disenfranchise Hispanic voters in Texas. Clearly, this measure, the proposed voter ID law, does nothing but harm for Texas. If you want to change my and our colleagues' opinions on this matter, I suggest you bring some evidence to the table.
*Scharrer, Gary. "Facts elusive in Texas voter ID fight." The Houston Chronicle. Published March 25, 2012. Accessed August 3, 2012.
**Abbott, Greg. "ID laws aren't significant obstacle to proper votes." Austin American-Statesman. Published July 8, 2012. Accessed August 3, 2012.
There is not need to for to criticize this article because I partly believe this as well. I just wanted to comment and add some stuff to it and some better reasons why we should attain this law.
Carrie talked about how the Republican party says we need voter ID's and how the Democrats say thats discrimination to the minorities. In my opinion its not discrimination at all. I truly think at least in the state of Texas they should make people show some sort of ID when voting. How do you know that someone isn't just using someone else's voter registration card and taking their vote, because they do not want to vote themselves. Having an ID to vote is a completely logical way of helping stop voter fraud.
When the voters say it will hurt the "minorities", they mostly mean the Hispanics. The reason for that is "Texas added 4 million people to its population between 2000 and 2010, he said, and 90 percent of them were Hispanics." said in this Times Union article. Everyone knows that a lot of those immigrants did not come here legally. Their is a huge chance that some of the illegals are using some of our own citizens voting cards. Then they have the excuse that a lot of the poor people can't buy ID's. Do y'all know how much a Driver's license cost? Around $20 and all these people are trying to tell me that these people without Driver's licenses are not driving already? Even if these people are poor the majority of them probably drive to work and that means without a drivers license. So by making people who want to vote have an ID it could also decrease on the amount of unlicensed drivers as well.
The only reason why the Democrats don't want the voter bill is, because they will lose some of their minority votes that they would need to win any of the elections. No matter how you see it, most people could see that this is not just a good idea, but needs to happen. I hope this bill gets passed.
In response to Carrie Sanders’ post “Texas ID is a Must”. I do agree with your post, Texans should show an ID before voting. Honestly, I can’t understand opposition to this measure. Why shouldn’t I show my ID before I vote? I already show my ID when I have to take a test, when I am at the airport, and when I pay with a credit card. The law only makes sense. There are requirements for a person to vote and those requirements can be checked by a person’s ID. This rather simple requirement (Voter ID) would go a long way toward combating fraud. Even though electoral fraud in the U.S. is far less widespread than in other countries, it still occurs and can be decisive in close races. Since the last few presidential elections have been very close and the upcoming election looks to be a nail-biter, I think it is necessary to make sure we do all we can to avoid vote fraud. As you mentioned in your post, “Texas courts have overturned at least four different elections in recent years after finding that improper conduct affected the outcome of the election.”
Those who oppose voter ID say that it can be compared to a poll tax and will limit voting turnout by deterring those without IDs from voting. I do not agree with these assertions. First, voter ID requires any form of identification that shows that a person is a US citizen and over 18. These forms of identification are free of charge and therefore not a tax. Some argue that even if IDs are free of charge the time and cost of getting the ID (travel, getting off of work to go to offices only open during working hours) would limit certain people from voting. I doubt this will have a huge effect on turnout. Most people that vote are regular voters or feel that it is their duty as a citizen to vote. Thus, those who would be dissuaded from voting due to the new voter ID law probably would not vote anyway and those who usually vote (or have a strong desire to do so) will vote regardless of the ID requirement. Therefore, voter ID will not affect the voter turnout by very much. I agree with your post’s suggestion of developing a picture voter registration card. Ideally, the government would make it as easy as possible to obtain a picture ID that can be used for voting so that fraudulent actions are prevented but the requirement does not suppress voter turnout or exclude anyone who is legally entitled to vote from casting a ballot.
Texas has now adopted a strict ID law that requires a photo ID for voters. If the Department of Justice approves the Texas law we will know who the person is that is voting and this will limit fraud. I, for one, hope this happens.
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