voter id in Texas
There is talk about a voter-id bill coming up again (and again and again)
My experience with voter-id is twofold...
When I registered and when I am the judge.
When I registered to vote in 1962 in New Orleans I was in a long line with a big crowd and the State police were walking up and down the line to suggest to the people what was valid id and what was not. One couple talked in highly accented English about what they had. The trooper assured them that a bill from the city water department was valid and then he started talking to them in German - the trooper had been in the Army in Germany and had learned some German. It was very touching to see this civil servant giving such good help.
The potential voter in front of me had his entry to the race track (he was a trainer) and some other papers. The trooper said "Maybe so, but check when you get to the front desk." The front desk said that the race track id was not good and that he should go get something else. I had a driver's license and a birth certificate, and I remember fearing that the clerk could be having a bad day and that I would have to go get something else, but my fears were unfounded and I got to register to vote. Hooray.
Did I mention that the I and the former German got registered and the Negro got sent home? We called African-Americans Negros in the early sixties - which was just ten or twelve years after the Nuremberg trials and just 16 years after WW-II. Why the German did not have his nationalization papers was beyond me, but I got my papers and I started voting at the next available election.
That was in 1962.
Since 1982, I have been the precinct judge at precinct in Austin, Texas. We have a good turnout and anything that delays the processing of a voter is not welcome and may discourage voters from voting. If the clerks have to look up extra pieces of paper and identification and make judgments about the validity of each one, that will slow things down and push the decision event further down the process chain. There is a possibility of unnecessary disclosure about telling the clerk - your neighbor - that you are getting food stamps or that you have some other business with the government. That's none of their business.
We should make the voter-id card a photo card and have the judgments made about voter eligibility made by people who are trained in doing that.
The costs will be high - high compared to what? Everything has a cost.
There is a way to generate voter turnout and pay for elections and pay for voter-id cards. In May of 2009, ther was an election in Austin and no candidate got a majority, so the two leaders were poised to have a runoff. The one trailing decided to concede after examining the evidence and there was no runoff. The runoff would have cost 500,000 dollars and would have had less than ten percent turnout!
Elections cost money and if we have a low turnout, the cost is especially hard to bear.
If we gave a tax rebate to anyone who votes in at least half the elections in a certain cycle, the turnout would be higher. We could have a spot on the election ballot to choose
"Voting as present, but not voting for any candidates or issues."
This would put a twist on things such as that runoff just mentioned.
Consider this possible headline:
The runoff cost 500,000 dollars, but the bill was picked up by the voters who did not vote.
In summary, a voter-id with photo will cost money, but it will be effective and having it paid for by the voters who do not vote will make the cost acceptable.
My experience with voter-id is twofold...
When I registered and when I am the judge.
When I registered to vote in 1962 in New Orleans I was in a long line with a big crowd and the State police were walking up and down the line to suggest to the people what was valid id and what was not. One couple talked in highly accented English about what they had. The trooper assured them that a bill from the city water department was valid and then he started talking to them in German - the trooper had been in the Army in Germany and had learned some German. It was very touching to see this civil servant giving such good help.
The potential voter in front of me had his entry to the race track (he was a trainer) and some other papers. The trooper said "Maybe so, but check when you get to the front desk." The front desk said that the race track id was not good and that he should go get something else. I had a driver's license and a birth certificate, and I remember fearing that the clerk could be having a bad day and that I would have to go get something else, but my fears were unfounded and I got to register to vote. Hooray.
Did I mention that the I and the former German got registered and the Negro got sent home? We called African-Americans Negros in the early sixties - which was just ten or twelve years after the Nuremberg trials and just 16 years after WW-II. Why the German did not have his nationalization papers was beyond me, but I got my papers and I started voting at the next available election.
That was in 1962.
Since 1982, I have been the precinct judge at precinct in Austin, Texas. We have a good turnout and anything that delays the processing of a voter is not welcome and may discourage voters from voting. If the clerks have to look up extra pieces of paper and identification and make judgments about the validity of each one, that will slow things down and push the decision event further down the process chain. There is a possibility of unnecessary disclosure about telling the clerk - your neighbor - that you are getting food stamps or that you have some other business with the government. That's none of their business.
We should make the voter-id card a photo card and have the judgments made about voter eligibility made by people who are trained in doing that.
The costs will be high - high compared to what? Everything has a cost.
There is a way to generate voter turnout and pay for elections and pay for voter-id cards. In May of 2009, ther was an election in Austin and no candidate got a majority, so the two leaders were poised to have a runoff. The one trailing decided to concede after examining the evidence and there was no runoff. The runoff would have cost 500,000 dollars and would have had less than ten percent turnout!
Elections cost money and if we have a low turnout, the cost is especially hard to bear.
If we gave a tax rebate to anyone who votes in at least half the elections in a certain cycle, the turnout would be higher. We could have a spot on the election ballot to choose
"Voting as present, but not voting for any candidates or issues."
This would put a twist on things such as that runoff just mentioned.
Consider this possible headline:
The runoff cost 500,000 dollars, but the bill was picked up by the voters who did not vote.
In summary, a voter-id with photo will cost money, but it will be effective and having it paid for by the voters who do not vote will make the cost acceptable.
posted by Richard Gravois at
9:43 AM
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