A top Travis County (Austin, TX) election official, Nelda Wells Spears, is being raked across the coals for “siding with Republican” on legislation that would require people to prove their citizenship when they register to vote:
Spears oversees voter registration as the Travis County tax assessor-collector, and her comments put her at odds with many fellow Democrats. Some of those Democrats, including her opponent in the March 4 primary, Glen Maxey, are already attacking her in e-mail chains and political blogs.
One of the greatest rights of citizenship is the right to vote. I for the life of me cannot buy a single argument as to why people shouldn’t have to prove that they are citizens in order to vote.
Well, except that Democrats know that illegal immigrants are 1000x more likely to vote for a Democrat than a Republican — and with millions of illegal immigrants already in Texas, that’s a sizable voting block that the Democrats would like to have be able to vote for them on election day.
Other than that, though, I can’t think of a good reason not to have to prove your citizenship to vote:
The disagreement surfaced after an Austin Chronicle endorsement meeting in which Spears was asked why she did not oppose proposed legislation to require proof of citizenship. Spears says requiring proof of citizenship is not unreasonable because only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote, according to a statement on her Web site, which adds, “I believe we Democrats must also show voters that we support reasonable safeguards to keep our elections honest.”
Democrats have been using the term “Republican voter suppression bills” to describe a bundle of proposed legislation that would require voters to prove their citizenship or show photo identification at the polls.
Most of the attention has focused on photo identification, but some Democrats say proof of citizenship also is being used to suppress turnout.
That’s true..we do want proof of citizenship to suppress the voter turnout — of illegal immigrant voters. Don’t you?
I love this final quote from Ms. Spears:
“It is pretty much against the party line,” Spears said. “Even though I consider myself a good Democrat, I also consider myself a person who can think for myself.”
Hmmm. Sounds more like a Republican to me.
Here in Travis County, she carries the GOP’s water at her own peril. What a tool.
OK Pat — I’ll play: How is she a “tool” for thinking that it’s a good idea for folks to prove that they are citizens in order to vote?
Why don’t you think folks should prove that they are citizens in order to vote?
You have to show a photo ID to buy beer or cigarettes, you have to show photo ID to open a bank account, or to fly on an airplane. There’s only one reason in this country not to have a valid ID that proves your citizenship: it’s because you’re not a citizen.
And thus you shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
Because no one has demonstrated any evidence of voter fraud in Texas by illegal immigrants, and because, like the poll tax, it would disproportionately deny otherwise eligible voters who are poor, minority, elderly or disabled of their right to vote. It’s a red herring, the latest authoritarian tactic adopted by the right to try and fend off the tsunami of angry post-Bush voters who stand poised to sweep the modern Republican party into the dustbin of history.
None of the activities you cite that require ID is a constitutional right.
Pat,
I dont follow your racist logic.
You’re correct. But being a citizen is a requirement to engage in the act of voting. Why again are you opposed to people being able to prove that they are citizens?
Or is it just knee jerk, “If the Republicans are for it, I’m against it” despite the fact that it just makes sense?
Why again are you opposed to people being able to prove that they are citizens?
Robbie, once again with the ahistorical perspective. There were a hundred years of small obstacles put in front of citizens to discourage them from voting. Do we want to return to that age? It can be shown that ID’s are more likely to be held by the wealthy and young- making voting easier for these classes of people violates the constitutionally mandated equal protection under the law.
I agree that we should verify citizenship- but we need to do this in ways that do not infringe on the Constitutionally granted rights of Americans.
Commenter sonia at burntorangereport.com sums up nicely why HB626 is bad legislation:
Nelda needs to read that bill a little more closely. She made it seem like a voter just had to sign a statement swearing they were a citizen to register if they didn’t have other required forms of voter ID.
The current voter registration card already has that. You check a box, under penalty of perjury, that you are a US Citizen.
What HB626 required a new voter do was go back, presumably to the voter registrar’s office, and execute an affidavit of citizenship. That’s if they didn’t come up in a database match in the SOS’s voter registration database. The SOS matches driver’s licence nubmers or the last 4 digits of your social security number, if that data is provided. HAVA does not require you to provide that information if you don’t have it. You still get registered to vote, but you do have to provide additional forms of identification to vote, like a utility bill etc.
Texas is already a voter identification state. The process is working now. The alleged fraud rate is so minuscule or statistically insignificant for the millions of votes cast in this state, that it’s not even funny. It’s not funny to be wasting so much time and resources on a virtually non-existent problem.
HB626 also required the state (SOS) to create interfaces to other state’s databases to prove citizenship. Never mind that there is no existing database that proves citizenship now – anywhere in the US.
Fiscal note HB626
The SOS would then be required to confirm the birth in the US with all the states and US territories, and would be required to confirm that the naturalization status of naturalized citizens. For those applicants that the SOS could not verify citizenship, the applicants would be required to execute an affidavit stating that the applicant is a US citizen. The bill would exempt from charge by a notary public, a notarized affidavit for proof of citizenship.
Keep in mind we’ve already seen database match problems, so this could presumably impact lots of voters, not just those who don’t have a driver’s licence or social security number. A simple clerical error inputing the data into the SOS voter database could cause a challenge.
So HB626 would create an extra step beyond the registration process. A potential two step registration process. All for what? We have a bigger election problem in this state in our low voter turnout. We need to be encouraging people to vote, not making it harder to vote. We have more important uses for taxpayer money to address real needs in our state. Not these hyped up voter fraud charges. The fiscal note for this bill was estimated at $21 million dollars.
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB626, As Engrossed: a negative impact of ($21,237,686) through the biennium ending August 31, 2009.
I would hope that Nelda rethinks her position and retracts her support for that bill.
Want to go back to be a democrate,
how do I change on line to be a democrate from a republican?