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March 28, 2005
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Pending Legislation Affecting Voting Rights
Several bills pending in the state legislature, seek to make it harder for legitimate voters to cast their ballots. That is unfathomable to me. The good news is that Jesse Jones (D-Dallas) has introduced the one bill that would actually benefit individual voters.
The Good - HB 1385
This bill, authored by Rep. Jesse Jones (D-Dallas) would allow voters who will be of voting age by the general election, to vote in primary elections as long as they meet all of the qualifications for voiting except for age. It makes sense to give voters who will be asked to make a choice in the general election, an opportunity to help select the candidates by participating in the primary election.
The Bad - HB 1706, HB 1402 and HB 1293
In eaither an overzealous attempt to prevent fraud or an overt attempt to make it more difficult to vote for the masses, State Sen. Mary Denny (R, Flower Mound) has introduced HB 1706 which will require Texans to show photo identification along with their voter registration card when they go to the polls to vote. Additionally, voters who cannot present their voter registration card would be required to sign an affidavit stating that they do not have the certificate in their possesion at the polling place. HB 1402 and HB 1293, introduced by Lois Kolkhorst (R, Brenham) and Joe Nixon (R, Houston), both require voters to present either one form of photo identification or two forms of identification that do not have photographs in addition to their voter registration card.
Our own Stace Medellin at Dos Centavos alerted us to these bills on 3/17. Kuff also reported on them..
The Ugly - HB 1269
HB 1269, introduced by Dwayne Bohac (R-District 138) would require a voter to submit a completely new registration form in the event of an error on their registration card. This is overly cumbersome. Currently you as long as you haven't changed your county of residence, you can file name and address changes online at http://www.texasonline.state.tx.us/NASApp/sos/SOSACManager
All of these bills are currently pending in subcommittee.
I would like to see the legislature impose as stringent requirements for proof of validity on voting machines as they are proposing to impose on individual voters. Voting machines without verifiable paper trails and software that can be audited by independent experts are a much greater threat to the electoral system than voters without picture identification.
Posted by Lyn Wall at March 28, 2005 08:29 PM | Permalink
Comments
I disagree about Jesse Jones bill: I think it is ill-conceived. Why? Education. Most voters are ignorant of what they are voting for. Jones' bill would make it possible for a high school junior to vote, in some cases. I'm sorry, but I have a high school junior in the family right now, and not even one junior or senior in a hundred is well-enough informed to vote intelligently. Most can not even keep the offices straight, much less the candidates.
The first election I voted in was the primary, while I was a high school senior -- and you can bet I was well informed. However, my friends were not. Several that spring, as well as later in college in the fall election, actually stood in the voting booth and asked me who to vote for (I was in the next booth over). That convinced me that there is zero need to push the age any lower than it is now. Besides, at that point, 99 kids out of 100 voted with their parents. What's the point?
Posted by: Dale Napier at March 28, 2005 09:19 PM