For Texas Voter ID Legislation, There Is Still A Long Way To Go...South Texas Against It Except For One Guy...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor

AUSTIN, Texas - The former mayor of this city, now a state senator, says he has a better idea on how to protect the integrity of the voting booth: make fraud a felony. That's State Sen. Kirk Watson's idea, and it sounds good. The Democrat, however, has little clout in the battle now being waged by legislators here, most of whom are Republicans who want the state to better-monitor its voting practices.

While it was entertained by his colleagues, Watson's plan went nowhere. The bill was approved by the state senate yesterday and now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to face a little tougher fight. At best, they say, it'll be a month before things are ironed-out there. Not that the crowing is lessening.

State Sen. Mario Gallegos, a Democrat from Houston, sees it as a misguided case of nonsense. Where some Reopublicans would like all Texas voters to flash a state-approved identification card when entering the voting precincts, Gallegos thinks it will only create a legal mess of astral proportions. When a state senator from North Texas noted that Mexico has a national ID card (shown above) it requires from its voters, Gallegos said Texas is not Mexico, or as he put it, "There are a lot of other things Mexico does not do when it sanctions voting. Mexico does not require a birth certificate and it does not register its voters."

And while the larger portion of the South Texas senate delegation voted against the Voter ID Bill, there was one exception.

"Where I live, there is a long history of voter fraud and the bill really wouldn't address the kind of fraud that occurs there," said Rep. Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg, who bizarrely noted polls show voters in his legislative district support the measure. "Political bosses have people taken to the polls, and people who take them tell them who to vote for. Voter assistance, it's called." Pena is shown in photo atop this story.

It is true that the border counties have long suffered from questionable practices, such as the enlistment of politiqueras whose for-hire help brings out the voter who likely wouldn't vote without the added incentive of a free ride to the polls or a few bucks here and there for their effort. If anything, it is the South Texas way of voting that forever shines the light on voter fraud.

Pena should know the voter fraud ropes. Until recently, when he changed political parties, he was a Democrat quite familiar with the ways things are done along the Mexican border.

Still to be decided are a few issues related to the ID itself. For one, what about voters who may have had their driver's licenses suspended? A Texas ID Card would do for them, say the Republicans. That may or may not serve the purpose, however. Precinct overseers would have the last say, is what critics counter.

What is also part of the Bill is the inclusion of a clause that says all Texans over the age of 70 would be excluded from the ID Card requirement.

So, who knows how that would affect South Texas, where the politiqueras generally roust senior citizens from the comfort of their nursing homes for a quick drive to the voting stations...

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