Invisible poll tax on the march

As we speak and sleep, there is an onerous effort moving through the Texas legislative – an attempt to institute what amounts to a poll tax, to prevent certain people from voting.
It confuses what is a privilege with what is an unfettered right as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Driving a car, which requires a license (containing a photo ID) is a privilege. To obtain it, you must pass a test and pay to have the license renewed every six years. It is a money-making operation for the government. The same holds true for passports; you pay for the privilege to travel.
Voting is an absolute right; you do not pay currency for your rights.
The bill in question is House Bill 218, sponsored by Terrell Republican Betty Brown. It passed 76-69 in the House last week and is sitting in the Senate, awaiting debate and possible action.
Currently, voters either show their voter registration card or, failing that, produce an identification to match their name to voter registry rolls. The bill would require a photo identification card, although it isn’t clear what constitutes a valid ID, or two other forms of non-photo identification at a polling place, and other ineligible residents from voting.
First of all, no one has proven that voter fraud is a problem in Texas. It exists everywhere because such things exist on all levels of society – from business to education to elections. However, the severity of these incidents, in this state, is rather minimal.
What many of you don’t know is that anyone registering to vote must either produce a Texas driver’s license and a valid social security card and number. This information could be validated at the county election administrator’s office, which is responsible for keeping the voter registration files.
Second, there is NO law which requires a single American (or Texas) soul to own a driver’s license. Without one, you cannot drive a motor vehicle, but you do NOT sacrifice your Constitutional rights – voting among them. If you are blind or handicapped, you might not drive, but you can vote. If you have reached a certain age, you might not drive, but you can vote.
The bill does allow for “exemptions” – a free state-generated photo ID and the handicapped and citizens over 80 (I guess if you’re 79, you are out of luck). But as I said, there is no law that states you MUST possess a photo ID. If people want to debate instituting a national or state identification system, using one card to serve multiple purposes, let’s have that discussion. But don’t muddy the waters by keeping anyone – the poor, minorities, the handicapped, and the elderly – from exercising their Constitutional rights because of some nebulous umbrella known as voter “fraud.”
After all, can anyone prove that driver’s licenses don’t also involve “fraud?” Remember this: non-citizens can easily get driver’s licenses, but it doesn’t give them the right to vote. Just go to any high-tech corporation in the region and see the different employees from various countries – all with valid licenses.
Then there is that question of validity. My wife works for Texas Instruments and is required, for all her moments inside that building, to sport a visible ID badge to let people know she is who she says she is. However, will that badge, which a multi-billion-dollar corporation issues and accepts as “valid,” be good enough to appear to vote in a statewide election? Or is only the money-making driver’s license system instituted by a state government?
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a poll tax – you have to pay your way to vote. And that’s been ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sadly, the language of the legislation and language of the debate suggests ulterior motives. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, again a Republican who presides over the State Senate, said his chamber favors “making sure American citizens vote in American elections.” We all know what that means; they are code words for illegal immigrants despite the fact that there has been no evidence of massive participation in elections by non-citizens.
And don’t you think, in certain locales, Hispanic Americans will be hassled far more when trying to vote, merely because of the color of their skin or the inflection of their surname? Please, don’t be so blind.
And if you are black, and suffered through segregation in this state, as well as coordinated efforts throughout the South to keep you from voting, this all smacks of the bad old days.

“Nothing pains me more in this House than to be forced to talk about being black in America, and that is what I must talk about because that is my experience; that is the lens that I see through,” said Rep. Helen Giddings (D-Dallas). “I keep praying that the day is near when we will be colorblind, but that day is not here yet. You cannot erode one freedom without eroding a little of yours.”

She is absolutely correct. As is the case with other factors in out society, you cannot become slightly pregnant and you cannot sacrifice freedoms and unalienable rights for a moment – once it happens, everything changes for the worse.
For a group that constantly fusses about lack of voter turnout, it seems odd that heaping more unnecessary restrictions on the process would improve matters. Of course, it isn’t the process that voters find objectionable; it’s the cast of characters and the scenario they perform within.
With so many problems that currently exist in Texas, that require the immediate and undivided attention of the Legislature, this is NOT one of them.