First it was the outrage that you should have to show a piece of government issued photo ID to vote.
This was, of course, declared to be racist because some oddly large percentage of a particular “minority” race doesn’t have photo ID (notice that they won’t tell you that they are including person’s currently incarcerated in that percentage to despite the fact that these folks already cannot vote).
As of November 5th, when Texas’s strict voter ID law goes into effect, voters will be required to show a photo ID at the polls. Twenty-five percent of eligible African-American voters and 16% of Hispanics do not have an ID that would satisfy the new Texas voter ID requirements. Eighteen percent of people over the age of 65 do not have a current ID at all, and student ID card issued by their college or university are not acceptable to allow them to vote in Texas. Unsurprisingly, most of these voters tend to vote for Democrats.
Now, not only are Voter ID laws racist, they are also sexist, because Texas.
But there’s an extra, very nasty little sting in the tail: these approved voter IDs also require that voters have their up-to-date legal name at the polls. This effectively impacts a huge proportion of women, particularly those who are married. Only 66% of voting age women has ready access to a photo document that will attest to proof of citizenship and what Texas considers a “legal” name. This is largely significant because married women don’t always update their documents with their married names, while changing names after marriage isn’t something that usually affects male voters. 34% of women voters – those who are even aware that such an ID will be necessary or they will be prevented from voting – are hurrying to update their documents, not so easy to do and, tellingly, not that quick. Texas is making obtaining this photo ID with a so-called “up-to-date” name as difficult as possible; women must show original documents, along with both a birth certificate and proof of marriage, divorce degree, or court-ordered changes. Photocopies just aren’t good enough.
Apparently, Texas Republicasn have found a way to close all state government offices between now and the election so that women cannot update their documents.
I mean fucking-A, really? Keeping your legal records up to date is a full time chore now? What if, (insert deity or afterlife location of your choice here) forbid, one of these over-burdened and estrogen-soaked souls dies in a car accident tomorrow. Do they not understand about how this could completely mess up their survivor’s lives by procrastinating this shit?
Maybe if they did understand, they would start voting government out of their lives.
I’m done with these people who cannot manage their own lives to the point where they burden me with their complaining about how complicated they have made their shit.
On one hand, it’s a citizen’s responsibility to get their paperwork in order so they can vote.
On the other hand, changing the paperwork takes a lot of time some people can’t get off work. When I got married recently, my wife first had to get her named changed on her Social Security card. That required taking a half day off work to go down to the Social Security office. No way to do anything with SS online. And once that was changed, she had to go to the DMV in person to change her name on her license, another half day off work. And some people just can’t take off work to do all the getting-your-shit-together done, so I can sympathize there.
But Texas is good about letting you update your license online. When I moved I changed drivers license, CHL, and voters registration in around half an hour online. So in cases of laziness, I have little sympathy. Ditto for the elderly; get to a library and use their computer, or have a relative bring over their wifi enabled laptop. Like said earlier, as a citizen you enjoy the right to vote as long as you’re responsible about keeping your ID records up to date. But Democrats don’t want people to be responsible. I think they’d rather go about throwing voter registration cards out of trashbags like beads at Mardi Gras.
Why is it only dems that are complaining? Why are they the only ones with a problem taking care of business? It’s no more difficult for a Republican, is it? But then they wouldn’t have anything to complain about.
Merle
They complain more, they complain louder, and they complain on behalf of everyone else. Look in the above posted part. It’s not Democrats claiming Democrats can’t get IDs to register. It’s Democrats claiming the elderly can’t get IDs, that women can’t get IDs, that minorities can’t get IDs (ya know, the typical Democratic voting blocks; I don’t see them complaining on behalf of hardworking guys who work hourly positions so they can’t just take off time to go to the DMV).
One time I saw a Democrat posting about how life was horrible, she couldn’t get a job because of disability/mental illness, and her husband had two low-paying jobs, and their benefits weren’t making their ends meet. What I didn’t see was her coming up with a solution or asking for a solution to get themselves off government benefits. Lots of times, Democrats think the problem will just go away if we throw more money at it. Having money helps, but you apply it correctly. Getting $10,000 wouldn’t help anyone if it was spent on booze, babes, and bling.
What a splendid reason to get rid of an antiquated and increasingly pointless custom! 😉