Because there are valid points of order on the Voter I.D. proposal, Democrats early on ask Speaker Joe Strauss if he would sustain one of them -- the fact that committee minutes for the bill were not filed within the three day deadline. He said the violation of the rule would make a bill ineligible for consideration.
Later, Straus indicated he might have, uh, misunderstood the question.
If it was a misunderstanding, it is a misunderstanding that cost the House several days work. Because if Straus had stuck with his original statement, Voter I.D. could have been called up, dispensed with on a point of order, and the House could have gone on to work on insurance reform and other issues.
But Straus and Republicans don't want to bring those bills up. It's clear they've gamed the calendar and the process to help their friends in the insurance industry, as well as Gov. Rick Perry who says he doesn't want to accept federal stimulus money for unemployment compensation -- another bill behind voter I.D. on the calendar.
It was a holiday yesterday, so you might not have been paying full attention to the Texas legislature-- specifically the Texas House.
Voter ID has slowed the Texas House to a near crawl. Republican's put the bill on the calendar and refuse to take the highly controversial bill off the general calendar.
KT then made it a point to discuss who controls what part of the legislative process. It looks a little like this:
Republicans control the Texas Senate.
Republicans control the Texas House.
Republicans set the calendar.
Republicans set the speaker.
Republicans set the agenda.
Had Craddick not be ousted, had they still hovered somewhere just south of 90 members, etc., etc. But the fact is, he was, and they don't. So it's up to the House Rs, not the House Ds, to get the train back on track. They're the ones who have to get the Ds to compromise, because unless they do, the Ds can use, in the Speaker's parlance, the process that's available to them.
Smith even quotes the Speaker himself from the Quorum Report.
"Democrats have been using the process that's available to them to use in a way that I wouldn't suggest is helpful," he said in an impromptu gaggle with the press during floor discussion of the Top 10 Percent Rule debate. "I would say the more they talk, the more explaining they have to do and I feel like the entire Republican caucus agrees with me on that. And I just hope they put aside some of this, some of the abuses of the process - legitimate - but I think ill-timed beyond just making their point."
Smith finally boils down the debate to the simplest point.
As for the explaining to be done, I would say it falls to those people who are so hell-bent on passing voter ID ahead of windstorm, insurance sunset, and other bills that pass the test of pressing need.
This is a complicated issue. Republicans control every branch of government in Texas. The far right wants voter suppression legislation over any other bill. They have made that decision... not democrats.
We have 1 day left to get to work on the people's business. It is only up to the Republican's in the House to get that done. They are the ones in power after all.
Smith floated another draft of a possible compromise bill on the floor today. Smith has been leaving Sen. Troy Fraser's SB 362 parked in committee in hopes of finding something that will pull a few swing-district Democrats to vote "aye."
But that's getting push-back from GOP hardliners on the committee and stopping him short of the five votes he needs.
"I have a really good agreement with [Republican] Rep. [Dennis] Bonnen and Rep. [Dwayne] Bohac, and [Democratic] Rep. [Joe] Heflin," Smith said. "I'm having trouble getting Rep. [Betty] Brown and Rep. [Linda] Harper-Brown on board.
Linda Harper-Brown won her re-election by a mere 19 votes. Harper-Brown beat Democrat Bob Romano 19,857 to 19,838 or 48.72% to 48.67%. Former Texas Republican Party Political Director Royal Masset estimated that a photo ID requirement would reduce Democratic turnout in Texas by 3%. In House District 105, that would have cost Bob Romano about 595 votes.
Is Harper-Brown pushing a fundamental political ideology or is she worried about re-election?
Rightwing voter suppression tactics may cause the death of any legislation passing out of the Texas House.
This is a simple situation of the far right not being able to agree with the moderate Republicans in the House who are trying to at least attempt to compromise with Democrats. There are a large group of Democrats who want to preserve the ability of every Texan to vote, and so it is the middle of the pack on both sides of the aisle who will get this bill passed.
Brandi Grissom of the El Paso times sums up the fight in a piece yesterday.
GOP lawmakers unwilling to compromise on strict voter identification requirements they have made a priority at the Capitol may be the very ones who kill the effort in the Texas House, state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, said Wednesday.
"If the far right is unwilling to accommodate on this legislation to any extent, then they do have the power to succeed in killing voter ID, and I will certainly allow them to do so," Smith said.
In the wake of a new, more restrictive bill, the Texas Democratic Party is urging people to contact the House Election Committee and request a hearing on this controversial bill.
Today, House Elections Committee Chairman Todd Smith circulated a new, more restrictive version of the Republican Voter ID bill that absolutely requires a Photo ID before a voter would be allowed to cast a regular ballot. The Committee could consider and vote out this legislation on short notice as early as this afternoon or at any time called by Chairman Smith.
Call the House Elections Committee members and tell them you support House Democrats' call for Chairman Smith to schedule a public hearing on this unacceptable version of the Voter ID bill before the Committee even considers taking a vote.
How is the new bill more restrictive?
According to Dave Montgomery at the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the bill takes away all of the compromises and moves it more in line with the Betty Brown, Warren Chisum, Tom Craddick wing of the party.
Smith, R-Euless, backed away from his original plan, which allowed voters to present a photo ID or two forms of non-photo ID, after 71 of the 76 House Republicans issued a statement insisting on a strict photo ID law.
In another major change, Smith also modified a provision in his earlier proposal that would have kept the bill from taking effect for four years in order to educate voters about the new ID requirements. Now it would become effective in January 2011.
Voters who are indigent, have a religious objection to the documentation, or live in a nursing home would be exempt from the photo ID requirements in Smith's revised plan. The bill would also exempt voters who are at least 70 years old and never had a birth certificate because their births weren't recorded with a state vital statistics office.
It's important to note these changes make the House voter suppression bill worse than SB 362.
As the Texas Democratic Party points out, Voter ID requirements place costly and time-consuming new bureaucratic barriers between voters and the ballot box that will make it harder for all of us to vote. There is no evidence of voter impersonation and Texans face far more urgent problems, but Texas Republicans are following a national Republican agenda to keep failed leaders in office with laws that would reduce turnout among seniors, students, people of color and those with lower incomes.
The fact that SB362 and ever other voter suppression bill is legislation in search of a problem may be a big reason why nobody in the Republican Party can agree on how to legislate it.
The Austin Chronicle has an incredibly impressive write up of the on-going shenanigans. Lee Nichols talked with Republican Todd Smith who said:
"But they want it without any money for registering voters, or without a transition period, or without a signature verifying process," Smith continued. "Then I don't get the marginal votes. It's time to find out whether Rep. Brown and Rep. Harper-Brown want a voter ID bill, because my distinct impression at this point is that they do not. For whatever reason, I am under the distinct impression that they want to kill it, and I may give them the opportunity to do that."
There are only a few weeks left, and the fact the target is moving around so much is the exact reason why more public input is necessary. People's ability to engage in our democracy is too important to have a thrown together piece of partisan legislation.
There are only two solutions. 1) more public input to work through possible problems and legal challenges or 2) refuse to pass a radical, restrictive piece of anti-voter legislation.
In either case, Speaker Joe Straus and Election Committee Chair Todd Smith are the two people in the drivers seats now.
During public testimony in the Election Committee, Republican Representative Betty Brown said something very interesting.
"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese - I understand it's a rather difficult language - do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
Now the background.
Rep. Brown, a Republican, made it clear that nothing is sacred that gets in the way of Texas Republicans' extreme partisan agenda, asking a witness testifying on the problems the Republican Voter ID bill would create for Chinese-American Texans. That's when she said the above mention line.
According to the Texas Democratic Party, Rep. Brown then went on to put the onus on those who would be prevented from voting by the Republican Voter ID bill to figure out their own solution, saying to the aforementioned witness, "I see a need here for young people like you, who are obviously very bright, to come up with something that would work for you and then let us see if we can't make it work for us." While Rep. Brown later tried to back out of her statements, the damage was done.
The Texas Democratic Party is now asking for Rep. Brown to apologize.
"It's already shameful enough that the Republican Elections Committee members are trying to suppress the votes of countless Texans with their partisan Voter ID bill, and now Rep. Brown is adding insult to injury with her disrespectful comments," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. "We are calling on Rep. Betty Brown to apologize for her offensive and out-of-touch remarks."
The Asian American community is one of the fastest growing populations in Texas. If a law is going to disenfranchise a group of people, the solution cannot and should not be for a person to sacrifice their culture in order to have the right to vote.
As the Asian American Action Fund pointed clarified, "Texas has a rather substantial APA voting population, including a fair number of Republicans. Not to mention, current and previous elected officials including ex-Rep. Martha Wong and sitting Rep. Angie Chen Button."
AJ Durrani, President of the Asian American Democrats of Texas added to Chairman Richie's appeal. Durrani e-mailed the members of AADT saying:
Members of AADT,
On Wednesday April 8, during the Texas House of Representatives testimony on the Voter ID Bill, State Representative Betty Brown, R-Terrell, made shockingly intolerant and insensitive remarks about Asian Americans. An article from the Houston Chronicle.Com is provided below for details, as is a statement from Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Ritchie.
State Representative Betty Brown's racially insensitive remarks have no place in America, and she should immediately and unconditionally apologize for her remarks. Please contact State Representative Betty Brown about her unacceptable remarks and ask her to apologize immediately in a public forum.
Her email address is: [mailto:betty.brown@house.state.tx.us betty.brown@house.state.tx.us]
Her postal mail and fax addresses, and phone numbers are as follows:
Capitol Address
Room E1.404, Capitol Extension
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463-0458
(512) 463-2040 Fax
District Address
108 S. Pinkerton, Suite 105
Athens, TX 75751
(903) 675-9500
(903) 677-6773 Fax
This is the Republican solution to the many problems with Voter Suppression legislation. If you are negatively effected by this ill conceived and unnecessary law, you should make sacrifices. If you are unwilling to sacrifice your job, your culture, your marriage, or anything else that may prevent you from voting, then you didn't want to vote bad enough.
Maybe that is why former Texas Republican Party Political Director Royal Masset estimated that a photo ID requirement would reduce Democratic turnout in Texas by 3%.
Mexican American Legislative Caucus chairman, and recent blog newcomer, Trey Martinez-Fischer has found a way to bring some levity to the situation. Once you get done asking for Rep. Brown to apologize, you can at least find out what your new name can be here. Let me introduce you to Elise Hughes KVUE's new political reporter. She may look familiar. Sort of like Jennifer Kim.
Update: Thanks to a friend on facebook, we now have the entire question and answer period between Ramey Ko and Rep. Betty Brown. There a couple really great points and our friend Ramey does a great job testifying.
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Because there are valid points of order on the Voter I.D. proposal, Democrats early on ask Speaker Joe Strauss if he would sustain one of them -- the fact that committee minutes for the bill were not filed within the three day deadline. He said the violation of the rule would make a bill ineligible for consideration.
