TX and MO Challenge Latino Voting Rights
Legislators in Missouri and Texas will consider Voter ID laws today. This is important because many Latino civil rights advocates consider Voter ID an infringement on the voting rights of poor and minority voters.
In Texas, given the pressing problem of the $15 billion (at last estimate) budget shortfall and the redistricting battles that loom on the horizon, Gov. Rick Perry has called for debate and a vote on Voter ID as an emergency measure. That’s right, Voter ID is the fire that Perry wants extinguished.
Briefly, Voter ID is a measure that would require all voters to present a photo ID when they go to the polls. The claim is that the law is needed to combat voter fraud. Opponents think this is a blatant attempt to dilute minority votes and disenfranchise the poor.
The measure comes at a cost: $2 million to the state and the cost of getting a state ID for the voter. Funny, all this, coming from a conservative Governor. On the one hand it adds to State spending when the legislature is looking for places to cut, and it increases government interference in the voting booth. So the idea increases spending and bigger government in order to fight something that does not exist. At last report, there were less than a handful of actual voter fraud cases across the state that involved people voting who were not qualified to vote – much less cases where a person voted using some one else’s identity, dead or living.
You’d think Perry would have a little more faith in his state’s political criminals. If someone is going to go to the trouble of illegally swaying an election there are better ways to do it. Imagine the ground work needed to get enough people to vote, posing as someone they’re not, to change the outcome of an election. Wouldn’t it be easier to hack to paperless electronic voting machines? If Perry were serious about election fraud he’d start there.
As for the voter, those who don’t have a photo ID would have to go to the proper state office and pay to get one. But we eliminated poll taxes many years ago. Why would we want to go back there?
Republicans in Missouri are after the same kind of measure. Same story, different state.
Both States are expected to take a vote on the measures on Wednesday.
