Ellis: Voter ID DOA
March 14th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
As reported in the current issue of the Observer (Bad Bills - “If It Ain’t Broke…”), three bills are pending in the House Elections Committee that would require voters to show additional identification, beyond a voter registration card, in order to cast a ballot.
Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) announced this morning that he has signatures from 11 Senators opposing the voter ID bills, enough to keep the legislation from ever reaching the Senate floor.
At a press conference outside the Senate chamber, Ellis told House members opposing the legislation to “fight to kill it, but don’t worry too much.”
A handful of legislators stood beside Ellis at the podium, including two members of the committee that heard the bills. Rep. Lon Burnam, a Fort Worth Democrat, called the proposal a “21st Century poll tax,” while Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) said he’d checked up on claims of voter impersonation (when a voter missrepresents themselves at a polling place) that were raised in committee by the bills’ authors, and found no evidence such a problem existed. When he asked the Sectretary of State’s office about voter impersonation in the last five years, Anchia said he was told they had not received a single complaint.
Any one of the nearly identical bills — Riddle’s HB 101, Brown’s HB 218 and King’s HB 626 — could be headed to the House floor soon, as they’ve got plenty of support from committee chairman Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler), who filed a carbon-copy voter ID bill earlier in the session. All are based on a 2005 bill from fomrer Rep. Mary Denny (R-Aubrey), which made its way out of the House after a brutal debate only to die in the Senate.
Ellis said the bill’s authors shouldn’t hold their breath waiting to see them turn into law. “We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends,” he said.
Poor people who don’t carry multiple identification, and elderly and disabled people without driver’s licenses, would be unfairly blocked in far greater numbers than fraudulent voters would, Ellis said. “Politics, not justice, is driving this train,” he said, before wondering why there wasn’t more talk of increasing voter turnout, rather than limiting it.
Though he didn’t mention it at the press conference, Anchia has a bill creating an election-day voter registration pilot program which could be one way to actually boost the number of people voting, by letting people who’ve never voted before walk up to a polling place and vote right then.
That bill is stuck in the same House Elections Committee as the others. To be voted out to the House floor, Anchia’s bill will depend on the kindness of Berman. Sientese no tarde de venir. Have a seat. We’re sure that will happen any minute now.
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