# Thank goodness: The Texas Voter ID law did not suppress the vote! **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 12, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735 "2013-11-12T17:49:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/1 "2013-11-12T17:49:10Z")
According to Bryan Preston at CNN, the T[exas Voter ID law did nothing to suppress](http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/opinion/preston-texas-id-laws/index.html?hpt=hp_t4) the vote last week. As a Texan, I am relieved. :rolleyes: So, in an election in which only the truly informed and motivated vote, Mr. Preston discovered that only the truly informed and motivated went to vote. We will surely see smooth sailing in the next big election. Everyone eligible will get to vote. Yeah, right. He even mentions that 90 year old Jim Wright had to go home and get his birth certificate. Suppose that, instead of a former Speaker, Mr. Wright were a poor old guy who had no idea where his birth certificate was, or how to get one, or the money to pay for one. Dontcha think his vote might have been a teeny bit suppressed? If the point of the law ISN’T voter suppression, then what is the point? It can’t be to preserve the vote, since there is virtually no voter fraud, and what there is wouldn’t be prevented by photo IDs. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/2 "2013-11-12T18:12:22Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > According to Bryan Preston at CNN, the T[exas Voter ID law did nothing to suppress](http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/opinion/preston-texas-id-laws/index.html?hpt=hp_t4) the vote last week. As a Texan, I am relieved. :rolleyes: That’s all about voter-turnout figures; I don’t see Preston saying that no eligible voters were turned away from the polls. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/3 "2013-11-12T18:26:28Z")
All hat, no cattle. A _pinata_ full of bullshit. Works for Laura Ingrown. Surprise, surprise. First off, an “off year election”. What sort of idjit doesn’t know what that means as regards voter turnout? He wants to take the least inspiring situation? > [@](#): > > …Well, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office, nine amendments went up for vote in 2013. The amendment that attracted the most votes, Proposition One, attracted 1,144,844. The average number of votes cast in 2013 was 1,099,670… > [@](#): > > …there are currently 13,594,264 voters on the list,… > **[Texas Reaches Record Number of Registered Voters on Voter Registration List...](https://www.sos.state.tx.us/about/newsreleases/2012/101512.shtml)** > > The Office of Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade, Texas Reaches Record Number of Registered Voters on Voter Registration List for November 6 General Election. What a crock of shit! “Well, the number of voters didn’t go down, like the lefties said it would, so they must be wrong!” Podnuh, because population grows, you have to expect that number to go _up_, unless there is some artificial hindrance. You got nothing worth saying until there is a real rip-roaring, hell bent for leather _election!_ Especially loved ths droll bit of non-partisan humor: > [@](#): > > …If voter ID was intended to suppress votes, it is failing as spectacularly as [HealthCare.gov](http://HealthCare.gov)… Har de har har, that there is a knee-slapper! Dennis Miller is going to steal that, fer sure and fer certain! > [@](#): > > …Opponents of voter ID must come up with a new line to attack it. The old dog that it suppresses the vote just won’t hunt… Hoss, that was last year’s folksy. Get your folksy-talkin’ update at Downhome 'R [Us.com](http://Us.com). Fuckin’ Aggies! ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/4 "2013-11-12T19:14:02Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > According to Bryan Preston at CNN, the T[exas Voter ID law did nothing to suppress](http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/opinion/preston-texas-id-laws/index.html?hpt=hp_t4) the vote last week. As a Texan, I am relieved. :rolleyes: Yeah, it was just terrible, having to haul my driver’s license out, the same way that I have done for the last 20 years or so. I honestly can’t remember when the last time was I showed a pictureless Texas voter registration card. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/5 "2013-11-12T19:49:01Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Yeah, it was just terrible, having to haul my driver’s license out, the same way that I have done for the last 20 years or so. I honestly can’t remember when the last time was I showed a pictureless Texas voter registration card. Then you haven’t showed a Texas voter registration card at all, because they don’t have pictures on them. It isn’t a problem to haul out your driver’s license, if you have one. Speaker Wright is 90 years old. His driver’s license is expired, so it was invalid for use as a picture ID for voting. Is there anything about a person’s identity that changes with the expiration of a driver’s license? If he was James Wright in 1992 (for example), doesn’t it follow that he is still James Wright in 2013? ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/6 "2013-11-12T20:03:24Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > Is there anything about a person’s identity that changes with the expiration of a driver’s license? If he was James Wright in 1992 (for example), doesn’t it follow that he is still James Wright in 2013? That’s probably true in the context of old people (who don’t get a new license). But I have to say, when my driver’s licenses have expired (and I’ve gotten a new one), I’ve still had the old one. Indeed, in college, people would use the expired licenses of their siblings to get into bars when underage (assuming they looked somewhat like the sibling). So, as a blanket rule, it would be easy to use an expired license to pretend to be someone you aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/7 "2013-11-12T20:03:52Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Yeah, it was just terrible, having to haul my driver’s license out, the same way that I have done for the last 20 years or so. I honestly can’t remember when the last time was I showed a pictureless Texas voter registration card. Not everyone in the world is the same as you. Which is, I’d say, a common misunderstanding that many conservatives have. Since you had to expend minimal effort to get a driver’s license, you are assuming that others have the exact same experience. It’s like someone who is 6’8" tall wanting to outlaw stepladders. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/8 "2013-11-12T20:13:07Z")
In a bit of irony, Greg Abbott, the current Attorney General (and odds-on favorite to be next governor of Texas), was [only allowed to vote because of an amendment to the Voter ID law](http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/14299/greg-abbott-can-still-vote-thanks-to-wendy-davis) added by Wendy Davis. An amendment he opposed, I might add. Abbott’s state ID didn’t match his voter registration information. So, he was nearly disenfranchised by the law he championed and only saved by his political opponent on a measure he himself opposed. Wendy Davis herself had to cast a provisional ballot since her ID doesn’t match her registration information, either. Apparently, several married women are running into this problem as well due to name changes. I guess you can claim the system works, since they still got to cast ballots, but I challenge anybody to say this is how any of the crafters of the bill believed it should have worked. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/9 "2013-11-12T20:19:17Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > I guess you can claim the system works, since they still got to cast ballots . . . In Davis’ case, who knows? There’s no way for a voter to check on whether his/her provisional ballot was counted or discarded. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/10 "2013-11-12T20:31:36Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Apparently, several married women are running into this problem as well due to name changes. Do you have any idea how name changes work in Texas? For example, I know that here, when you go to the DMV to get your name changed, you get a new voter registration form. So, maybe both your license and voter registration are under your old name. Or both under the new name. But it would be odd for them to be different, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/11 "2013-11-12T20:43:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In Davis’ case, who knows? There’s no way for a voter to check on whether his/her provisional ballot was counted or discarded. She didn’t have to use a provisional ballot; the amendment that Davis successfully added to the ID law allows the voter to execute an affidavit that they’re the same person if the names on their ID and voter registration are “substantially similar”, which enables the voter to cast a regular ballot. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/12 "2013-11-13T05:22:40Z")
[TX Republican Election Head Blames Wendy Davis for Voters Actually Voting.](http://thecontributor.com/republicans-blame-wendy-davis-complications-caused-their-voter-id-law) > [@](#): > > As the Lone Star Project reported earlier this week, Director Ingram specifically blamed Senator Davis in a response to a grievance filed by a Texas voter. This is obviously not the kind of leadership we should see from our State Elections Director, a position that serves all Texans, not just the governor (Rick Perry) who appointed him. > > In the [politically-charged letter](http://lonestarproject.net/sites/default/files/TXSOS-response.pdf), Ingram lies in saying that the Voter ID law only changed the way people with maiden names voted in “one important respect,” referring to the affidavit. He then mentions Senator Wendy Davis by name, and describes her amendment. In purposeful oversight, our State Elections Director chose not to include that before the Davis amendment, people whose names did not match precisely with what was on the voter rolls would be denied the right to vote altogether. What Wendy Davis provided as a solution to the Voter ID law problem, Republicans are now trying to spin as an additional burden - even though they introduced this unnecessary law in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-goodness-the-texas-voter-id-law-did-not-suppress-the-vote/673735/13 "2013-11-13T07:31:31Z")
Ya’ know, when they coined the phrase “Souls to the polls” I’m sure this is the exact type of election that inspired it. /Sarcasm