Elderly Texas Woman May Be Disenfranchised After Being Denied A Voter ID Three Times

[LanternWaste]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/26/2683971/dorothy-card-voter-id/

Card’s experience is emblematic of the challenge that many Texas residents have faced or will face when trying to exercise their right to vote. Because she hasn’t driven in nearly 15 years, Card doesn’t carry the most common form of photo ID: a driver’s license. Once the voter ID law took effect, she went down to her local Department of Public Safety, the Texas agency that administers voter IDs.

She brought her documents and thought they would issue her a voter ID without hassle. She was wrong.
What should have been a simple trip to the DPS turned into three (and counting) long, arduous trips, each ending without Card being issued a voter ID.

Card didn’t have a license or other photo ID already. She tried to get a copy of her marriage license from the county courthouse, but officials there were unable to locate it. Even a special letter from a county administrator attesting to this was deemed insufficient by the DPS.





This... this is an accurate illustration that the laws are doing precisely what they were intended to do: prevent minorities, the elderly, and the poor from voting. I think we may safely presume that many, many more Americans will be denied the right to vote than even the highest fictional numbers given of people engaging in voter fraud.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Rec and Kick

And it needs to be stated over and over and over again:

Texas’ voter ID law took effect this year after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, negating federal efforts to block new discriminatory voting measures.

Posting on this issue within a thread about voting habits of black Americans:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3723902


I totally get that there are bigger, grander, glossier philosophical and constitutional issues going on right now - but we really really really need ALL leftists to wake up and realize what has happened here. Every time I read Texas is blue in 2020 I want to cringe.

That can only happen if every eligible citizen can vote.

[lastlib]

8. K & R!!!

This is what it's all about, people!! If we don't fight them on this, AND BEAT the ever-lovin' SHIT out of 'em on it, we stand to lose ** EVERYTHING ** else we have fought for in the last century!! These GOPpers are the most anti-democratic (small "d&quot wrecking crew to come through our country in generations! And they are THE GREATEST THREAT to the American way of life since WWII. That's not hyperbole. It's the reality we're facing, and we'd better face it head-on, and fight it to the last man and the last breath.

[joeybee12]

2. You're right...and your point needs to be hammered again and again...knr

[WillyT]

3. K & R !!!

[pansypoo53219]

4. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE VOTED. registration should be AUTOMATIC.

[Jenoch]

7. I agree with you.

I do not think voter ID laws should be enacted anywhere. That being said. I still do not know how anyone can get through life without an ID. My father is 82. He was born in the house built by my grandfather. My grandparents did not have a car (the only ID they had were their naturalization papers.) The neighbor lady went to the courthouse and filled out the papers to document my father's birth. He has a birth certificate. Doesn't everyone have a birth certificate filed away at a county courthouse somewhere?

[lastlib]

9. No, they don't. Many elderly people were not born in a hospital, and never had

a birth certificate. Two of my aunts were in that category. Immigrants (legal or otherwise) may have left their documentation in their native countries.

[Jenoch]

11. Yeah, you are correct about the immigrant thing.

Although my grandparents were immigrants and never had driver's licenses I don't know what they did for a photo ID. My grandmother did a lot of travelling so I know she had a passport.

Like I said, my dad was not born in a hospital but his birth was still registered at the courthouse. I guess my grandparents were pretty smart in that regard.

I'm not in favor of voter ID requirements. I just don't see how somebody can get through life in this day and age without an ID.

Heck, my father went a clinic in Arizona where they take a photo on a patient's first visit and then on subsequent visits they u pse facial recognition software to make sure the patient is who they say they are.

[LanternWaste]

10. I think we're forced to conclude that it may not be as easy as we may imagine

If we assume that a marriage license and a birth certificate are as easy to get a copy of as the other, then I think we're forced to conclude that it may not be as easy as we may initially imagine.

E.g., From the story... "She tried to get a copy of her marriage license from the county courthouse, but officials there were unable to locate it. Even a special letter from a county administrator attesting to this was deemed insufficient by the DPS."

[Scurrilous]

5. K & R

[Gothmog]

6. Voter ID Law is working as intended

This law was designed to keep people from voting and it is working