The Texas Department of Public Safety has announced it is still offering Election Identification Certificates for people who lack an acceptable form of photo ID to vote in the upcoming November election.
Select driver license offices will be open on Saturday’s through Nov. 8 to issue the EICs. Mobile stations have also been dispatched to various locations across the state.
Texans can obtain an EIC at the following locations:
■ At any of the more than 220 Texas driver license offices during regular business hours.
■ Select driver license offices on Saturday’s from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
■ EIC mobile station locations. Mobile stations can be located at votetexas.gov/election-identification-certificate-mobile-stations.
■ Alternate locations issuing only EICs in select counties.
■ qualify for an EIC, an applicant must:
■ Bring documents to prove U.S. citizenship and identity,
■ Be eligible to vote in Texas,
■ Be a Texas resident and
■ Be 17 years and 10 months or older.
Individuals will receive an EIC receipt which can be used for voting until the permanent card comes in the mail.
The EIC is free of charge and is valid for six years. It may only be used for voting in an election and cannot be used as personal identification.
"The EIC is free of charge and is valid for six years. It may only be used for voting in an election and cannot be used as personal identification."
What is the difference in cost between making an EIC and a Texas Photo ID? The Texas Photo ID costs $20. Both are coated with plastic, etc, etc, etc.
You need the same documentation to get either form of identification.
Why can't the EIC be used as personal identification? It is personal identification to vote.
What genus in Austin came up with this absurdity?
These ID's won't be FREE for many people.
70 counties in Texas don't have a dps or license office. That is 1/3 of Texas.
"The Texas ID law requires expensive and time-consuming efforts by citizens who don't have specific forms of identification such as a Texas photo driver's license or concealed handgun permit. Texas will offer a free Election Identification Certificate, but to get it, citizens will have to present specific forms of identification that can be costly and difficult to obtain, such as a birth certificate, which in Texas costs $22. In addition, to get the election ID card, a citizen must show up at a driver's license center in person, and a third of Texas counties -- 70 of them -- don't have centers." http://faculty.washington.edu/mbarreto/research/Voter_ID_APSA.pdf http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/05/511205/over-750000-pennsylvanians-could-be-disenfranchised-by-voter-id-law/?mobile=nc http://prospect.org/article/new-voter-id-laws-target-women
The Voter-Fraud Myth: What Racist Voter ID Laws Are Really About
http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-and-inclusion/how-to-end-racist-voter-id-laws-what-these-new-requirements-are-really-about/
Seriously, the AJ has got to be one of the most dishonest papers in the state. They run a series from their parent company about being responsible and signing a name to what one writes and then they pull this.
These ID's will not be free for many folks when considering the hoops the poor will have to jump through. The time away from a job, a child, transportation costs, the fee for a birth certificate, all of these things make it harder to vote.
And the GOP and their toadies know it.
What are the chances that the EID will arrive in the mail prior to the election?
"Individuals will receive an EIC receipt which can be used for voting until the permanent card comes in the mail."
But, a receipt is not a photo-id. In the list of acceptable identification, the EIC receipt is not listed.
What does the receipt look like?
Wonder how many people will be unable to vote because the judges at the poll haven't been informed about this or don't know what the official receipt looks like?
So another state run SUPPRESSOR is just now starting this procedure 2 weeks before the election
How convenient
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2011/03/dairy-queens-but-no-dps-offices/
"Gallego complained that voters in his remote district should not have to drive a hundred miles to get a DPS sponsored ID card if they don’t have a driver’s license.
Rural counties that don’t have a DPS office should be exempted from the bill because people in remote areas should not be forced to drive long distances to get a photo ID, Gallego argued."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas's_23rd_congressional_district
Yeah, Billywayne, I suppose even my typo was about right.
You're welcome.
I figure that Texas's 23rd congressional district only accounts for 29 counties. Mostly poorer and mostly Hispanic. The land area accounts for about 24% of Texas. What would the other counties in Texas that do not have DPS offices add to the land area taken by non DPS office counties?
Conservatives have done nothing, but lie and cover their behinds. Whoever wrote this article should be ashamed.
I accidentally put the link for the US congressional 23rd in my earlier comment but here is one for Texas's 23rd. It really doesn't make a difference.
http://www.hurdforcongress.com/texas-23rd-congressional-district-race-is-set/
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/06/18/texas-23rd-district
"The federal judges noted that many Texans without a driver’s license don’t have easy access to a Department of Public Safety office to get a state-issued voter ID card. That’s because there are no DPS driver’s license offices in 81 Texas counties and 34 additional counties have severely restricted access because of part-time office hours.
Texas could have mounted a stronger defense if GOP leaders had come up with money and a directive for DPS to, at the least, bring mobile driver’s license offices to those counties on weekends to make it easier for voters to get an ID card."
http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2012/08/common-sense-voter-id-not-always-so-common/
Edited to add
"The same can be said for those low income neighborhoods in the big cities that have no DPS driver’s license offices. Folks without a driver’s license would have to hitch a ride or find a bus to get to the other side of the city where they probably would have to wait in line at a DPS office. But, they probably would have to take time from work because those DPS offices are only open from 8-5 on weekdays (and 6 pm on Tuesdays).
The federal judges noted Texas had “failed to propose, much less adopt, any program for individuals who have to travel a significant distance to a DPS office, who have limited access to transportation, or who are unable to get to a DPS office during their hours of operation.” The state would have had a stronger defense if it had directed DPS offices to roll mobile units into under-served areas to make it easier for Texans without a driver’s license to get the state ID card.
The court ruling was quite clear:
“Texas, seeking to implement its voter ID law, bears the burden of proof and must therefore show that SB 14 lacks retrogressive effect. But as we have found, everything Texas has submitted as affirmative evidence is unpersuasive, invalid, or both.
“Moreover, uncontested record evidence conclusively shows that the implicit costs of obtaining SB 14-qualifying ID will fall most heavily on the poor and that a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty. We therefore conclude that SB 14 is likely to lead to “retrogression in the position of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.”
Apparently, his oath was to uphold and defend unconstitutional goTP laws, instead of the US and Texas Constitutions.
Reminds me of a local office holder who renounced his oath of office within 24 hours of taking it.
What the Hel? What are oaths of office to goTPs? Apparently, a mere formality.
where Abbott and Charles Perry are coming from.
When I was filling out the paper work to become a teacher at Durango School District 9R, I was asked to sign an oath of teacherhood to support and defend the state constitution of Colorado.
When I asked if I could at least read it before swearing an oath to defend it, I gained a reputation as a troublemaker. I was informed that, if I wanted to teach in CO, I would sign the oath.
I wanted to teach in Durango, so I lied.
In my favor, as a special ed teacher, teaching severe/profound/multiply impaired students, I couldn't see how doing my job would ever put me in conflict with my oath. In other words, I lied, but I never violated my oath.
I'm pretty sure that Abbott and Perry knew they were lying when they signed their oaths also, and, at least Abbott, lost very little time in violating his oath. Perry's looking for an opportunity though. He's made that plain.
The radio interview in which he stated he would defend his interpretation of the Bible above the Texas Constitution and the US Constitution every time.
Yikes.
Abbott was recently asked if he would defend laws banning interracial marriages in the context of Loving ruling and its relevance to same sex marriage, he wouldn't answer the question.
Government I.D., It failed here in Wisconsin.
Are those Republicans, now going to start working on fixing the real problem? Texans don`t vote. in the 2012 Presidential election only about 8 million voted, out of about18 million eligible to vote
After reading the comments here it seems that whatever attempt made to appease those that may or may not have any form of picture ID will never please some on the left. I have not noticed one single comment or complaint made by someone that does not have a picture ID. It seems the folks on the left enjoy being disagreable. It is ironic to read these comments and is very notable that the more done to try and satisfy those on the left, the more they complain and expect.
One cannot help wondering if it is possible to please a few on the left, or they only trying to cause problems in order to be noticed.
This is just the opinion of a hard working law abiding old country boy.
If you want to help your fellow man, why don't you volunteer to drive some of these so called slackers to the DPS office to get their voter ID. Since there are no buses that run out there if they can take some time off low paying jobs, why can't you take some time off since you have all that oil money coming in and help these people. Some of them may actually be your sioux relatives.