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Archive for March 11th, 2009

Voter ID Passes Senate Committee Hearing

Posted in Good Government, Privacy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2009 |

After a grueling 23-hour hearing, the Senate passed SB 362, requiring that voters present a photo identification.  No big surprise there.

The AP reports,

No one was surprised that a special Senate panel, which includes all 31 senators and Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, approved the legislation along straight party lines in a 20-12 vote just before 10 a.m. It was, as one Democratic senator observed, a “foregone conclusion.”

Wednesday’s vote all but assures it will pass and be sent to the House as early as Monday.

Andy didn’t make it back to testify, he had to head off to Dallas before his turn came up.  Lots of people didn’t make it to testify… though as many as 150 folks signed up, only around 25 made it through the night to actually speak.

I’m not sure on the official numbers of how many people dropped cards for or against the bill, but I heard through the grapevine that more people commented against it than for.  Thanks to everyone who made it out — get ready to do it all over again in the House!

Reports Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex,

The bill is all but assured a similar party-line vote when it comes up before the full Senate as early as Monday for final passage. The bill will then go to the Texas House, where it will likely be assigned to the House Elections Committee.

Sorry my fellow Good Government watchdogs… our work is never done.  And even then, who will watch the watchmen?

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After midnight in the Senate: Voter ID at hour 16 and counting…

Posted in Good Government, Privacy, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2009 |

It is 2am.  I have been listening to the Senate debate voter ID suppression for the past 16 hours. I hope all of you have been following us on Twitter, as some of those tweets were quite entertaining.

I have heard the arguments.  Here are my opinions:

Those opposed to voter ID have successfully proved that this is a solution to a problem that does not exist.  Period.  Years of investigations by the AG’s office costing millions of dollars and not a single indictment.

However, those who are in favor of requiring voters to present picture ID also have a compelling argument that they claim not one person has been kept from voting.  But, I hate to ruin a good story with the facts, but that just ain’t so.  According to the Houston Chronicle today yesterday, over 4200 voters were kept from voting in the 2008 election in Georgia alone, whose law the proposed bill is based on.

As I tweeted earlier, one of the expert witnesses claimed that based on demographics and the experience in Georgia and Indiana, 162,901 Texans would be disenfranchised.

Sounds like a big hurdle for voters to “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist.

I have to get up in 4 hours and go to Dallas.  I’m beat.  I’ll keep the Senate testimony on all night and let it permeate my dreams (scary, no?)  Maybe by the time I wake up they will have gotten to public testimony and I can swing back by the Capitol and testify before heading to Dallas.  Not bloody likely, but I can dream….

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