State Rep. Mary Denny, author of the execrable HB1706, shows her ignorance during the committee hearings on her awful bill:
“You have to show ID to rent a video at Blockbuster,” Denny said. “That’s something simple and not nearly as sacred to us as casting our vote.”
Let me explain to you the difference between voting and renting a video, Mary. Voting is a right. It’s the most important right guaranteed by the Constitution to American citizens. Remember the headlines from the NRA convention in Houston where that group said it would oppose restrictions on gun ownership even where those restrictions might help fight terrorism? They feel that way because gun ownership is a right guaranteed to American citizens by the Constitution. Such things are worth going to the mat over. If we don’t have the rights and freedoms granted to us by the Constitution, then what exactly do we as Americans have?
Renting a movie from Blockbuster, on the other hand, is a privilege. Blockbuster is under no obligation to do business with you. They can refuse service to any person at any time and for any reason. They can also put arbitrary requirements on the privilege of diong business with them, such as showing photo ID. (As Greg Moses points out, what they really want is to ensure that they can collect what you owe them.)
If Blockbuster turns you away, you can still get your hands on whatever movie it is you wanted. You can join Netflix. You can order video on demand from your cable company. You can buy DVDs at Walmart. These options are also available to you if you decide that Blockbuster’s photo ID requirement is too onerous for you. No such alternative exist for anyone who gets turned away at the ballot box.
Comparing a fundamental Constitutional right to renting a movie shows nothing but disdain and contempt for all citizens. If you think I’m being overly dramatic here, you go back and review what the NRA has to say about gun ownership, because I feel the same way about voting.
But fraud over the years has caused mistrust of the current system, Denny said. She said she has heard many tales of dead people voting and of people who falsified their identities casting ballots.
“People are tired of it,” Denny said. “They want to know their vote counts and that it was cast by them.”
We’ve been down this road before. I challenge Mary Denny to produce any actual evidence of widespread vote fraud and an erosion of public confidence in voting that stems from such fraud. I’ll bet the biggest complaint she finds has to do with the lack of a verifiable paper trail to go with our electronic voting machines. Where’s your bill to remedy that, Mary?
“In this day and age everyone has a photo ID,” Denny said. “You have to have it to exist in today’s world.”
Yes, and there’s quite a few people who think that’s one of the biggest things wrong with today’s world. Too bad Mary Denny wants to make the problem worse. Chron link via Houtopia. Other good commentary can be found at In the Pink Texas and The Red State.
UPDATE: Adina comments:
There are four bills in Mary Denny’s committee to add a voter-verifiable paper trail, with sponsorship from both parties.
Chairman Denny has so far refused to allow the bills a hearing. If you’d like to move this forward, please call her office and ask her to schedule a hearing on any of these bills. The number is (512) 463-0688.
The bills are HB166 (Pena, D), HB1289 (Liebowitz, D), HB2269 (Baxter, R), HB3038 (Kolkhorst, R).
Figures. Do feel free to make a call as suggested. Thanks, Adina!
There are four bills in Mary Denny’s committee to add a voter-verifiable paper trail, with sponsorship from both parties.
Chairman Denny has so far refused to allow the bills a hearing. If you’d like to move this forward, please call her office and ask her to schedule a hearing on any of these bills. The number is (512) 463-0688.
The bills are HB166 (Pena, D), HB1289 (Liebowitz, D), HB2269 (Baxter, R), HB3038 (Kolkhorst, R).
How about Washington and Wisonsin for starters. Voting is a right, if you are eligible and registered. It is not an unfettered right.
Mary Denny is a fat, ugly, ignorant, stupid, gun-loving (license to carry), Craddick-licking chair who carries only what benefits her personal agenda from session to session. Check her record. You’ll quickly see the pattern.
Should I find it bizarre that many of the same people who scream for paper receipts for voting machines and don’t trust those systems demand that there be no verification of citizenship beyond a voter registration card or, in the absence of that, a utility bill?
I think that as an experiment, bloggers should try to vote with the LEAST RELIABLE AVAILABLE method and then work their way up, begrudgingly showing voter registration cards as a final step. Then, they should report their results.
A true paranoid crosses all political boundaries and demands verification of everything.
Chuck, I certainly wouldn’t deny that voting is our most precious right. And for precisely that reason, it must be protected by measures to ensure those not legally entitled to vote are not allowed to do so. For if they do, they have abridged MY RIGHTS. They have tainted an election when very simple measure could prevent voter fraud. A photo ID is not a high hurdle for a responsible citizen to clear.
Make no mistake, I would not want to stand in the way of any legal voter who wishes to cast a ballot. Likewise, I value my vote and the integrity of elections so much that I agree with you that elections should have a paper trail. And while we’re at it, a background check for gun purchases is just fine with me.
It’s cliche but with right come responsibilities. And for the right to vote, I don’t think producing a photo ID is to great a burden.
Blockbuster is under no obligation to do business with you. They can refuse service to any person at any time and for any reason.
That’s generally true, Kuff, but there are exceptions: Blockbuster cannot refuse service to you because you are black, female, Mexican, etc.
Nonetheless, your point is well taken. You just overstated your case a bit.
How about Washington and Wisonsin [sic] for starters.
You need to provide a bit more detail, snrub. Are you alleging that non-citizens voted in both those states? If so, what is your evidence, and what bearing would such fraud have on the need to change Texas law in any case?
Laurence and Patrick, do you have any evidence that Texas’ current system of voter registration has allowed non-citizens or other ineligible voters to vote in this state? If so, put up; if not, shut up.
As for the assertion that requiring a photo ID is no big deal: I guess it’s a matter of opinion, but I can tell you that it would prevent my wife (a Caucasian US citizen, born in Oklahoma) from voting, as she has had trouble with her eyesight and has therefore not gotten a Texas driver’s license. That should quite reasonably keep her from driving, but it certainly shouldn’t keep her from voting.
So what you are saying is that I shouldn’t have to show an ID when purchasing a handgun because it is my right to do so.