The latest bullshit whine: Voter ID violates Amendment IXX

[Adam]

Even more astoundingly twisted "logic" from those desperate to continue voter fraud at all costs:

It's a trend lately, that if a party is afraid of losing an election, they pass legislation barring key groups in their opponents' base from voting. And clearly, it's something Texas has taken to heart. Right after Wendy Davis declared that she was running for governor, Texas Republicans set out to disenfranchise women from voting, 19th Amendment be damned.

And the way they're keeping ladies out of the voting booth it is a doozy.

From The New Civil Rights Movement:

As of November 5, Texans must show a photo ID with their up-to-date legal name. It sounds like such a small thing, but according to the Brennan Center for Justice, only 66 percent of voting age women have ready access to a photo document that will attest to proof of citizenship. This is largely because young women have not updated their documents with their married names, a circumstance that doesn't affect male voters in any significant way. Suddenly 34 percent of women voters are scrambling for an acceptable ID, while 99 percent of men are home free.

Adding another wrinkle to the plan, women in Texas must show original documents of the name change: a marriage certificate, a divorce certificate, or a court-ordered name change certificate -- and no photocopies are allowed. This leaves women in Texas either scrambling to gather the proper paperwork and get their ID in order before the registration cut-off, or leaves them unable to vote.

What utter, unmitigated horseshit. First of all, it's already the law in Texas that you must update your ID with a name change, and secondly, everyone I have ever encountered who has had a name change due to marriage, divorce, or because they asked for it through the courts, couldn't get to the DMV fast enough to get their new ID with their new name.

Trying to claim that this somehow disenfranchises women is beyond asinine.

[Billy Jingo]

Another reason (as if I needed another one) I am glad I have a penis.

[phillygirl]

Yep, it's a bullshit whine. Maiden names can wreak havoc. Yes, some extra care needs to be given in these instances, but they are surmountable issues. A few extra seconds or minutes isn't going to cause the election to be skewed.

[Adam]

Another reason (as if I needed another one) I am glad I have a penis.

So it turns out she got to vote just fine.

Well, that answers that. Complete non-issue.

[Billy Jingo]

Yep, it's a bullshit whine.

Yep. It's their own damn fault for having a vagina.

[Billy Jingo]

So it turns out she got to vote just fine.

Well, that answers that. Complete non-issue.

Too funny.

What's an extra hoop or two as long as we get there in the end, right?

[Adam]

Too funny.

What's an extra hoop or two as long as we get there in the end, right?

You're right. She shouldn't have to actually go to the polls. The polls should come to her! Why should she have to actually change out of her pajamas to go vote? Why, that's just entirely too much trouble! It's an obstruction to voting! And if she has to buy a coat to go vote because it's cold outside, that's a poll tax!

[Billy Jingo]

You're right. She shouldn't have to actually go to the polls. The polls should come to her! Why should she have to actually change out of her pajamas to go vote? Why, that's just entirely too much trouble! It's an obstruction to voting! And if she has to buy a coat to go vote because it's cold outside, that's a poll tax!

Hey, she should be happy she gets to vote, period!

Now make me a sammich, judge.

[phillygirl]

When I started working 20 something years ago, our court made women in divorce actions put their maiden and married name on the caption. If they had never used their husband's last name, they had to sign an affidavit stating as such before the court would allow the caption to read only as her maiden name. During a seminar I asked the administrator if there was any reason we didn't require the husbands to sign such an affidavit, since there was no law of which I was aware, requiring women to take their husband's name upon marriage. He was speechless...and then abolished the affidavit rule a month later.

[Gingersnap]

Too funny.

What's an extra hoop or two as long as we get there in the end, right?

What hoop? Your stuff doesn't match your ballot. You sign an affidavit (at the table when you sign the poll book in Texas) or you are given a provisional ballot (at the table when you sign the poll book in Colorado), you vote, you get a sticker, you're done.

Your vote is counted unless you have committed a fraud the Secretary of State is capable of detecting (unlikely). How is this a burden? In my state, you are required to have your driver's license or state I.D. match your legal name (whenever and under any circumstances it might have changed: marriage, sex change, adoption, etc.). You have to have it changed at the Social Security office first. This is also the only name that is legal for SS benefits, WIC, Medicaid, etc., and the only name that can be used for employment verification, health care enrollment, the IRS and so on.

Exactly who in the 21st century in the USA is both an avid voter and an off-the-grid recluse who is self-employed, not tax compliant, and free of welfare benefits?

There might be some people like that (renegade Amish perhaps) but everybody else has a record and the Secretary of State's office will sort it out for voting purposes.

[Norm dePlume]

Your vote is counted unless you have committed a fraud the Secretary of State is capable of detecting (unlikely).

Your faith in the inerrancy of government workers is touching. In the unlikely event that a clerical worker decides not to count your ballot, are you even notified? Is there an appeal process?

[phillygirl]

Your faith in the inerrancy of government workers is touching. In the unlikely event that a clerical worker decides not to count your ballot, are you even notified? Is there an appeal process?

I think in most states the same rules apply as do the rules within the voting booth. I'm pretty certain most states allow voting to be secret.

[Norm dePlume]

I think in most states the same rules apply as do the rules within the voting booth. I'm pretty certain most states allow voting to be secret.

Normal votes -- those not designated provisional or having an affidavit -- go directly into the pile to be counted. There is no mechanism by which they can be individually disqualified. If you sign an affidavit, your vote might be secret (contained in a privacy envelope) but it's attached to an affidavit that you signed. It's set aside for verification before it goes into the counting pile. The fact that it's your vote is not secret. Your political affiliation is not secret. It can be disqualified if the clerical government employee assigned to validate it decides to disqualify it. My question was: If it's disqualified, are you even notified? Is there an appeal process?

Obviously, there would be no notification or appeal if a normal vote is disqualified for the simple reason that there is no secondary check during which a normal vote could be disqualified.

[Gramps]

Normal votes -- those not designated provisional or having an affidavit -- go directly into the pile to be counted. There is no mechanism by which they can be individually disqualified. If you sign an affidavit, your vote might be secret (contained in a privacy envelope) but it's attached to an affidavit that you signed. It's set aside for verification before it goes into the counting pile. The fact that it's your vote is not secret. Your political affiliation is not secret. It can be disqualified if the clerical government employee assigned to validate it decides to disqualify it. My question was: If it's disqualified, are you even notified? Is there an appeal process?

Obviously, there would be no notification or appeal if a normal vote is disqualified for the simple reason that there is no secondary check during which a normal vote could be disqualified.

That would be a state process most likely, and dependent upon the address being something other than a vacant, weedy lot or a condemned, boarded up building.

"undeliverable" I believe is the stamp the postal system marks those with

[Norm dePlume]

One more time. I'm asking two questions. Those questions are:

1. If your vote is disqualified, are you even notified?
2. Is there an appeal process?

Thanks, everyone for all the answers to questions I haven't asked. Good effort. But all the same, they don't answer the questions I did ask.