Voter ID at last!

This is from the Texas Tribune

Voter ID Passes House After Long, Emotional Debate
by Julian Aguliar

After more than 11 hours of debate, seven points of order, more than 60 amendments and nearly as many heated exchanges, a mentally vanquished and emotionally exhausted Texas House preliminarily approved the controversial voter ID bill late tonight.

The bill, SB 14, which would require that voters present a form of approved photo identification to cast a ballot, was passed strictly along party lines, 101-48.

Throughout the debate, Democrats opposed the bill that Gov. Rick Perry designated as an emergency item. They tried — and failed — time and again through amendments to loosen the strict voting requirements.

State Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, the bill’s House sponsor, bore the brunt of the Democrats’ frustrations. But she and Republican supporters of the measure dug in, and rejected even moderate proposals for change. With Republicans accounting for 101 of the 150 legislators in the House, the bill’s approval was never in doubt.

Republicans argued, as they have through years of working to pass the measure, that requiring photo identification is necessary to stop voter fraud, to restore integrity at the ballot box and to increase voter confidence and turnout. Democrats countered that voter fraud at the polling place is a myth, and that if it occurs at all, it is through mail-in ballots, a problem the bill would do nothing to address. Instead, they said, requiring photo ID would disenfranchise thousands of voters, including the elderly, minorities and students.

I cannot understand the Democratic issues here, we must have a photo ID for so many things, including the privilege to drive, why should we not have one to vote?  Their argument is a specious one.

Voter ID - will it keep illegals from voting?

From Empower Texans we get news of an attempt to use college ID's as voter ID's.
Nope, not a good idea.

Rep. Smith again mucking up Voter ID?
By Pratt on Texas
 
If there is anything the DC debate on the ill-named DREAM Act has taught us in Texas, it's that our public universities are filled with those who are residing in the country illegally and, despite that fact, are politically active.

Demonstrations by college students have been held around the state, especially in San Antonio where a hunger strike was held, in support of the amnesty-for-illegal-alien-students bill they call the DREAM Act. And it’s important to note that many of these students, who are not in the country legally, see no problem involving themselves in our political process.

That brings us to the Voter ID bill that is almost certain to pass the Texas Legislature this spring. According to a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, House Elections Committee chairman, Todd Smith of Euless, has introduced a version of the bill which allows “driver's license; passport; concealed handgun license; military identification card; student ID with a photo; US citizenship certificate; and state, federal or tribal ID cards with photos” to used as polling-place identification.

Smith’s bill should be a non-starter until he dumps the “student ID with a photo” part. These ID’s are issued routinely without regard to one’s legal status in the country and thus do not provide the protection from fraud expected of the bill.

We’ve just learned that illegal-alien college students see no reason that they shouldn’t pressure Senators Hutchison and Cornyn to vote a certain way in Congress. So why would we for a moment believe the same activists will not use their student ID’s to vote in elections? It looks to me that Rep. Smith is once again mucking up the issue.

Thanks to Jim H. Little for sending this to me.