Tom Ng moved to Frisco, Texas, recently and registered to vote there. Tom says he knew that you don't need ID to vote in Texas -- a judge blocked that law over the summer. But look, above, at what he got from the state. He writes:
Found it interesting that the back of the voter registration card dedicated two paragraphs about voter ID rules Texans would have to adhere by upon federal approval. At first glance, it appeared to me the voter ID law passed and would be enforced. Why else would they dedicate two paragraphs full of details on voter ID rules?
Texans have been pointing out the mixed signals for several months now, but hey. Below, a scene from early voting in Frisco, north of Dallas.
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this stuff in TX and PA -- giving voters the impression you need ID to vote -- is disgusting and is nothing short of voter intimidation.
First you get confused by Rick Perry, then you get confused by the ballot, then you don't really want to vote, because these people only want 61 percent of the white vote for the one percent. TRMS has been all over this.....
There is nothing mixed about these signals "If you are a minority or poor you're not allowed to vote"
The only thing I hope is that after this is all over that someone in these states starts campaigns to recall or oust the Secretaries of state that are willing to play these games with the constitution and peoples voting rights.
Amen. We need to educate every Democrat to take notice of who is Sec. of State. We need to insist that the state parties recruit qualified candidates to run for this office in every state.
I agree with your sentiments, Dragoon21b and bflynch, but with all due respect, your proposals are unduly optimistic. Rachel is part of the reason all this intimidation is widely known, but the reason she was able to find so much of it so easily was that it was flagrant and unconcealed. The secretaries of state and boards of elections were confident enough in their independent powers and political support that they felt no need to be devious or stealthy, and even as their schemes are being exposed, no one is stepping in to make them undo their mischief or remedy the damage they've already caused, and no one, as far as I know, is calling for their recall, let alone their arrest. This will happen again and again because there is no risk of adverse, let alone punitive, consequences.
Voted in Tx yesterday and nobody asked for ID. Vote early no matter where you live, avoid the lines and possible issues that could come up on 11/6. Get it done! GOBAMA!!
The article wasn't about voting, it was about registering to vote.
I saw the paragraphs on the back of the registration card too. I was sure that I didn't have to show ID, so I purposefully didn't show one when I went to vote. I wasn't asked either. I live in a small town about 60 miles north of Austin, so it wasn't just Austin.
DOgjudge, you might want to re-read the article. It is most definitely about voting, not registering. The "Voter Registration Card" referred to is, in Texas, the card you received to show you have registered. The registration process is a different form and involved showing definitive proof of identity (SSN and photo ID).
How can I be so sure? I live in Texas. I have followed the voter suppression movement here closely. What strikes me as odd is that the Republicans would bother with Texas. It is going Republican regardless...a child molester could carry Texas if he ran as a Republican...we have one bunch of dumb voters (and most of them talk aboutt he dumb Mexicans, really).
What has always bothered me about all of this is that there is very little that is done.
The damage is already done. If they illegally swing this election in favor of Romney, Romney is still President after the election is over.
Imagine this scenario. The election swings on one state. Florida. Romney wins the state by less than 100 votes. It's found that 1,000 voters didn't get to vote because of the above type of scenarios. Those voters are in districts that heavily favor Obama. HEAVILY. It's apparent that had these 1,000 voters been able to vote, Obama would have won the election.
This is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than Bush vs. Gore. To the best of my knowledge they've never reversed an election because of these types of illegal activities.
I disagree. I think the Republicans successfully stole the 2004 election using these same (and different) tactics.
According to the report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the 2000 election (worth reading the summary linked to here, if you never have),
Even without assuming that every single one of those approximately 97,200 "spoiled" African-American votes would have gone to Gore: given the margin by which he carried the vote in that community, who (besides the most willfully deluded of rwnj's) really thinks that this alone wouldn't have reversed the initially reported 537 vote (later "officially" increased all the way to a 1,784 vote!) margin of "victory" for GWB?
As Obama demonstrated in '08 - the key to winning elections since 2000 is to do so by a big enough margin that the Rape-Public-CONs can't plausibly cheat. More than anything else, that's what has me nervous this year. I'm still confident that Obama will win, but then, I'm still confident that Gore, and then Kerry, also won.
G O T V !!!!!!!
Get Enraged and Engaged:
Mooch the Vote 2012!
;-)
Since I moved here to Texas in 2000, I have provided either my paper voter registration card or my license (because, you know, I can never find my paper voter registration card). I am one of the "lucky" ones who already had what will be required in the future when I vote.
I think most "middle class" "middle income" people don't even really think about it because they already have an I.D. like their driver's license. I think that is why it was so "easy" for these Republicans to disenfranchise so many lower income people. As always, the repressed are the first to be suppressed.
What else but a racist state would continue to intimidate it's citizens! And yet, it is the people within the states that voted for the "leadership" of "their state representatives"! And this is why sometimes as these same issues keep popping up in these states, I'm really not feeling sorry for these sheeple, they too deserve exactly what is happening to them - because they chose not to pay attention and be sheeple!
Can we just start horse-whipping the sheeple, maybe then they'll snap out of the delusion and hysteria that they've been living in?!
I can happily report here in Houston that my local early voting place... despite telling voters verbally and via flyers last May that they "may" need ID come November... were NOT asking for ID when I went Tuesday, with long lines and plenty of voting machines (an extra row was added due to demand.)
Voter turnout is likely to be WELL above normal this year if this is what we're seeing in a locked-in Red state like Texas.
Rachel - I hate to burst your bubble about the evils of having to show ID to vote. However, Obamacare is urging doctors to go to the electronic records program. I believe the feds offer @ $44,000 to change but if you don't, doctors will be hurt by the amount of money they will be paid for gov. medical fees. Now, the complaint is that doctors must place a laptop between their patients and them, plus MUST send out all prescriptions by email - NO MORE hand written ones. Why? Easier to monitor. How does this relate to voter the ID issue? ALL patients must show a form of ID to set up their medical records and MUST show their ID for each visit - even though they are daily and everyone knows your name!
So, add another situation in which ID's are needed. Will you now go on screen to complain this is a devious design to prevent many minorities from receiving medical care?
Just a note of contrast to the photo of the voting site... I early voted in Houston yesterday. My early voting location is located in a primarily black neighborhood - there were approximately 250 people of all ages waiting to vote at 3:00. I was particularly happy to see the younger kids voting.
I just early voted yesterday in Texas, dowtown at the courthouse..every single voter in line presented both their voter registration card and their driver's license.....the fact that I didn't need the ID was news to me.
Where in the Bible does it say that any of us gets to be judge? Yes, I know that we are to discern the behavior of our fellow Christians but this policing of all women has no basis in the Christian faith! Christ does not advocate that we are to be in each others bedroom or vaginas to dictate how any of us are to deal with the pain that life stikes us with. The "do gooders" (mostly men in high ranking positions) have not been appointed by God to rule the lives of women. It is not their place to put themselves in the seat of God and make rulings and judgement and laws about how any of us chooses to deal with this fragil life that we have been dealt! The Christian movement has not matured enough to allow uninformed, pios men to be put in responsible positions where they can be allowed to destroy the lives of decent, hard working women! This is a very scary time that we are living in! What would Jesus do? In my book, he would not want our women to be left with no birth control and no means by which they can deal with rape, incest, and the brutality of men like our "fearless leaders" who don't know enough about anatomy to realize that rape can result in unwanted pregnancies and that even within marriages there are rapes! I would not like to married to any of the men who are wanting the power to get into our vaginas! Makes me wonder about how they treat the women in their lives!!!!!!????????
WE MUST NOT LET THOSE ILL-INFORMED MEN TO GET INTO ANY OFFICE WHERE THEY CAN RULE OR APPOINT OTHERS WHO CAN ALLOW THIS GREAT NATION TO GO BACK IN TO THE DARK AGES WHERE WOMEN HAD NOT SAY AT ALL ABOUT THEIR LIVES, PREGNANCIES AND 'LIFE' CHOICES. GOD DID CREAT US EQUAL AND HE DID NOT APPOINT ANY OF US TO BE SUBSERVIENT OR JUDGE OVER ANY OTHER PERSON. DO THE RIGHT THING!
I voted today! I was disappointed that (a) the people at the early voting told me I needed to fill out an "Application for Absentee Ballot"....I wasn't voting absentee, I was voting early in person! (b) they asked me to show ID even though showing ID is not required in this state (Hawaii)! and (c) on the ballot, the names for candidates were in the wrong order (I'm pretty sure state law requires them to be listed in alphabetical order) - even in this fabulously progressive state, Mitt Romney was listed first and Obama was listed last. Sigh....the Republicans party's continued push to break the law in order to get their candidates elected and and attempt to block people from voting is reason enough to vote only for Democrats until the Republican Party becomes less of a national disgrace.