Voter ID Redux: Fraud-ier than Ever
January 25th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
The House Elections Committee is in the middle of an all-day hearing right now, in a sneak preview of what promises to be one of the next legislative session’s major party-line battles, again: voter ID. They’re meeting today at the behest of House Speaker Tom Craddick, who charged the committee with studying voter fraud in Texas.
GOP-backed bills requiring photo ID at the polls were an issue back in 2005, and turned into one of the 80th Legislature’s most compelling dramas last year, only narrowly defeated in a string of dramatic close calls. As the session wound down, ailing Sen. Mario Gallegos’ continued presence in Austin, against the advice of his doctors, was all that stood in the way of the bill’s passing.
Like the horror movie villain you were sure they finished off in the first film, voter ID looks like it’ll come back bigger, stronger, and fraud-ier in 2009.
Voter ID-backers (Elections Committee Chairman Leo Berman among them) are organizing their efforts to prove that impersonation at the polls is a serious problem requiring a serious change in our voting law. Reps. Rafael Anchia and Lon Burnam, who sit on the committee, are waging an information war to point out just how damaging photo ID requirements can be to voter’s rights, and how unnecessary photo ID laws are. Voter fraud may be a problem, they argue, but most of it happens through the mail or in schemes that don’t depend on pretending to be somebody else at the poll.
Last session the Elections Committee and the House floor saw hours of debate that was heavy on bluster — security of the voter rolls (Republicans), the rights of the people (Democrats) and the sanctity of the vote (both) — and light on fact. A year later, the argument has matured a little bit, with national experts testifying, case studies from other states, and specific voter fraud horror stories dug up from around the state. There are new facts coming out in today’s testimony, yet there’s a real sense that we’ve seen this movie before.
A few developments have changed with the voter ID debate since last May, including speculation about an upcoming Supreme Court decision on an Indiana voter ID law, and a State Auditor’s report highlighting problems with Texas’ voter database.
It’s unlikely anyone in the room is changing their mind, and that’s because of the elephant that’s in here with us. Always politely ignored in public debate is the nation-wide GOP push for the voter ID laws, and the sense that the marching orders are coming from up the party food chain. After a skeptical reception for the voting rights experts from New York, Chairman Berman warmed considerably to Republican Committee Chairman Tina Benkiser just moments ago, thanking her for what he called “the most profound statement of the day.”
Other national experts on voting rights and election fraud are slated to speak, and county clerks from around Texas are testifying about newly documented cases voter fraud. The witness list is long, and after seven hours straight, it’s still long. After the day’s first witness, Berman quipped that, “At this rate, we’ll be here ’til midnight,” but his estimate is looking, appropriately, a little conservative.
For all the theatrics, it turns out the voter ID fight is already a movie — a short documentary focused on Gallegos’ difficult days at the end of the legislative session, produced by the Lone Star Project and available here on Google Video.
