Can’t let sleeping dogs lie

Comments by readers of the online version of my column generally run the gamut from praise to potshots; if it were otherwise I’d wonder if anyone out there was paying attention.

For the record, I don’t usually comment on readers’ comments, but when serious misinformation is put forth, I can’t just leave it hanging out there. This is important stuff for voters to know, even if it seems like nitpicking. Especially if they are wondering about the current Republican effort to pass a law requiring further and redundant identification at the polling place.

Specifically, a couple of readers have insisted that our present law does not require a voter to present a voter registration certificate or in fact any ID at all, in order to vote, each separately recounting experiences where merely giving name and address was all they had needed to do when they voted.

If that were the case, which I respectfully doubt, then the Election Judge at their polling place would have erred, for our Election Code Section 63.001(b) states that:
“On offering to vote, a voter must present the voter's voter registration certificate to an election officer at the polling place.” And there’s a whole litany of procedures that the Election Judge must follow after that.

If, as can happen, you’ve forgotten or lost your registration certificate, you may still be able to vote under Section 63.008:

(a) A voter who does not present a voter registration certificate when offering to vote, but whose name is on the list of registered voters for the precinct in which the voter is offering to vote, shall be accepted for voting if the voter executes an affidavit stating that the voter does not have the voter's voter registration certificate in the voter's possession at the polling place at the time of offering to vote and the voter presents proof of identification in a form described by Section 63.0101.

How do you read that? Clearly, simply stating your name and address won’t cut it.

Section 63.0101 lists the acceptable forms of identification that will allow you to vote provided you complete the affidavit; the list includes driver’s license or other photo ID, birth certificate, or even a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, “or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter.”

A third reader agreed with the others, saying, “I see absolutely no problem with requiring ID for voting.”

Well, fine. But here’s the truth: We already require an ID for voting. It’s called a voter registration certificate, and if you don’t have it with you, see above.

Now, stop a minute and think: In order to get a voter registration certificate, you have to . . . wait for it . . . produce your ID!

According to Elections Code, Section 13.002(c)(8)(A), in order to register to vote your application must include:

(A) the applicant's Texas driver's license number or the number of a personal identification card issued by the Department of Public Safety or a statement by the applicant that the applicant has not been issued a driver's license or personal identification card; or
(B) if the applicant has not been issued a number described by Paragraph (A), the last four digits of the applicant's social security number or a statement by the applicant that the applicant has not been issued a social security number.

Lots of hassle to go through if you want to cheat, and it doesn’t look like there would be many folks left to commit voting-without-ID.

Somewhere in all the comments one gentleman assured me that this was all moot because “Texas law requires people to carry identification on their person.” Well, that sent up shivers of déjà-vu for the libertarian in me, back to the whole national debate about the idea of a national identity card – you know, like all those bad communist governments out there.

So I did what any red-blooded American would do: I called the cops.

Speaking to one of Waxahachie’s finest, I put it to him directly: Does Texas law really require a person to carry identification? His answer:

“No, ma’am.”

He went on to explain that if you are driving a motor vehicle, you must have a driver’s license with you; if you are packing a pistol, you’d better be licensed for that. And the same goes for any other activity for which a license is required: If you need a license for what you’re doing, be prepared to show it.

But you won’t break the law just being out and about, walking the dog, or even walking to the polling place, because America is still the land of the free.

I know this has been an awful lot of detail without much comic relief, especially if the nuts and bolts of our democracy don’t fascinate you as they do me, but if you’ve gotten this far in reading perhaps that means you’ve found it useful.

Here’s to the nuts, and bolts!

Originally published in the Waxahachie Daily Light on March 30, 2009