Houston Democrats

Isn't there some kind of controversy over the ease with which people, such as immigrants who have not yet become citizens, can get a driver's license? I don't have a problem with immigrants being in Texas or the US, but I do believe a person should be a citizen in order to vote. I know that there has been a lot of talk in California about this recently, and I figure Texas faces similar issues. Since the most common form of ID with a picture on it is a driver's license and if it is easy to obtain, I don't see how it makes voting any more 'secure'.

Plus if voter fraud is going to occur on a scale large enough to influence the election, it will more likely be through the alteration of the record or tampering with the machine. It is simply a very ineefficient use of time to find the name of a voter who would definitely not vote in election and to show up in their precinct to vote just to influence an election by one more vote. Really there should be a voter receipt to verify the candidates for whom one votes. If it's different, a voter should have the option to void the ballot and to cast a new one. The receipt will then provide the paper record necessary to prove the results of an election in the case of a recount.

I worked at a polling station this past November and saw all forms of acceptable ID. Only a very few people were told they did not have an acceptable form of ID, and they did return later with an acceptable one. The major discussion at the time was over the electronic machines. The Republican chair of the station praised the new machines at the beginning, but by the end of the day had been converted to the need for a paper trail. Apparently, when voters tried to vote straight-party Republican, either Bush or Cheney was not selected. This wasn't necessarily a problem since a Bush-Edwards or Kerry-Cheney result is not possible. I felt a certain satisfaction from a confirmation of my suspicions of an electronic voting machines. It did raise suspicions and raised the potential for other problems with the machines that may have gone undiscovered.

I agree with your take on this issue, we should not let ourselves be influenced by paranoia. Everyone is not a terrorist. If a terrorist wanted to influence an election, he/she/they would do something like what occured in Spain, not attempt to vote in an election like every ordinary citizen. It would be much more helpful to focus on providing a verifiable paper record than finding other reasons to not allow people to vote on Election Day.