Ballot Security
Barbara Larson, Ballot Security chairman
H.B. 218 was
filed in the House by Representative Betty Brown on November 14, 2006. If passed, this bill would have required a
picture ID in order to vote. This bill passed the House by 76 for and 69
against. H. B. 218 was then sent to the
Senate for their consideration. The
Senate Committee voted for the bill by a margin of 6-3. In the Senate, a 2/3rds majority is required
to bring a bill to the floor for consideration. Since there are 31 Senators, it means that
11 Senators can block a bill. When it
came time in the 2007 Legislative Session to bring the bill up for a vote, it
was blocked by a Democratic coalition of 11 Senators. One story from the 2007 Session gives an idea
of the intensity of the opposition we will face in 2009: One of the Senators against bringing the bill
to the floor was Senator Gallegos.
Senator Gallegos had a liver transplant prior to the vote and was told
to recuperate at home, but instead brought
a cot into his Senate office in case the bill was brought up for a vote.
Last
Thursday, Senator Ellis and Senator Gallegos wrote an opinion editorial for the
Houston Chronicle in which they reiterated that no law requiring a picture ID
in order to vote was necessary.
Any
individual or group can testify for or against a bill. Groups that testified for the bill
during the 2007 Session included the following:
Immigration
Reform Coalition of
Groups that
testified against the bill during the 2007 Session included the
following:
True
Courage Action Network
Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
AARP
ACLU
Coalition
of
NAACP
AFL/CIO
People for
the
League of
Women Voters
United
Transportation
One important
piece of news is that the Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality
of an Indiana Voting Law that requires a picture ID in order to vote. People against the law have said that it
amounts to nothing more than a poll tax and disenfranchises voters.
The Supreme
Court found that a provision in the Indiana law providing a free photo ID was
enough to prove that it did not amount to a poll tax. It seems certain that in
Another
argument against this bill is that it disenfranchises voters with no easy
access to government offices and that there is no tangible proof that such a
law is needed.
The Texas
Attorney General filed a brief for the Supreme Court to consider when it was
deciding the
Please go
to http://tinyurl.com/5ncv8p to view the Brief in its entirety.
The Wall Street Journal conducted a poll and
found that 80% of people favored having a picture ID in order to vote, with 62%
strongly favoring the bill, and only 7% opposed to the idea. Another poll found that 82% of the people
favored a bill requiring a picture ID in order to vote, with 75% of Democrats
in agreement. These polls let us see that many Democratic voters want a picture
ID in order to vote, even though the opposition comes from the Democratic
leadership.
Bill Noble,
the owner and founder of Noble Strategic Partners, Inc, based in
Bill noted
this issue is important to many Texans and is not a just Democrat vs.
Republican issue. He suggested creating
a broad-based, statewide coalition of supporters from all demographics and
party affiliation to promote this issue.
Bill noted the TFRW was instrumental in raising support for the
elimination of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund tax and we would need
to generate the same kind of grassroots heat to win this issue. In addition, Bill will be developing
strategies throughout the year and during the next Legislative Session to help
us.
My job as
TFRW Ballot Security Chairman is to inform TFRW members on the status of this
issue and ask members to take specific actions.
I am requesting that everyone write the