Oh come on ladies. Why are you trying to vote anyway?
by digby
Hey if women want the right to vote, they should learn how to follow the rules:
"What I have used for voter registration and for identification for the last 52 years was not sufficient yesterday when I went to vote," 117th District Court Judge Sandra Watts said.
Watts has voted in every election for the last forty-nine years. The name on her driver's license has remained the same for fifty-two years, and the address on her voter registration card or driver's license hasn't changed in more than two decades. So imagine her surprise when she was told by voting officials that she would have to sign a "voters affidavit" affirming she was who she said she was.
"Someone looked at that and said, 'Well, they're not the same,'" Watts said.
The difference? On the driver's license, Judge Watts's maiden name is her middle name. On her voter registration, it's her actual middle name. That was enough under the new, more strict voter fraud law, to send up a red flag.
"This is the first time I have ever had a problem voting," Watts said.
Just because there's zero evidence for voter fraud doesn't mean it couldn't happen, amirite? Can't be too careful.
And how hard can it be to zip down to the DMV and get a proper ID? According to Ari Berman, it's pretty damned hard:
Getting a valid photo ID in Texas can be far more difficult than one assumes. To obtain one of the government-issued IDs now needed to vote, voters must first pay for underlying documents to confirm their identity, the cheapest option being a birth certificate for $22 (otherwise known as a “poll tax”); there are no DMV offices in 81 of 254 counties in the state, with some voters needing to travel up to 250 miles to the closet location. Counties with a significant Hispanic population are less likely to have a DMV office, while Hispanic residents in such counties are twice as likely as whites to not have the new voter ID (Hispanics in Texas are also twice as likely as whites to not have a car). “A law that forces poorer citizens to choose between their wages and their franchise unquestionably denies or abridges their right to vote,” a federal court wrote last year when it blocked the law.
Of course. Suppressing the votes of the young, the poor, racial and ethnic minorities and women would be the point. We know who they tend to vote for don't we?
Luckily there is one group that won't have to worry:
Texas has the distinction of being one of the few states that allows you to vote with a concealed weapons permit, but not a student ID.
Hey, I don't see why they should have to show a permit. They should be able to just hold a gun to the poll workers head and demand a ballot. That ought to be enough to prove they're a Real American, right there.
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