Another side effect of the Supreme Court stay.
The only voter ID anyone should need
Even if you’ve registered to vote in Texas, you won’t be getting a new voter registration certificate until February. Although the latest blue cards expired at the end of the year, counties are waiting to mail out new ones until a long legal battle over the state’s redistricting maps — which has already pushed back the primary elections — has concluded.
Officials say residents will still get the new yellow certificates in time for the primary election, which was moved last month under a federal court order from its usual date in March to April 3, with early voting from March 19 through 30 and a runoff date of June 5. The certificates verify that voters are properly registered and provide them information on which districts they live in so they know which races they can vote in.
But like every other segment of the election timetable this year, the mailing dates are subject to change. The court fight over redistricting affects voting precincts and where registered voters may cast ballots, hence the delay in mailing out new voter registration certificates. Officials in Travis, Williamson, Hays and Burnet counties all said they are waiting for some resolution, which they hope will come by the end of the month, before mailing the hundreds of thousands of cards.
Williamson County Voter Registration Supervisor Julie Seippel said if the legal issues are not resolved in time to send the certificates, the courts will probably set new mailing deadlines for counties.
I just checked, and indeed my card expired on December 31. If you go to the Harris County Tax Assessor page, you will see that they have posted a notice about this. Given all the shenanigans they’ve pulled in recent years, one has to be aware of the possibility for abuse here. It hadn’t occurred to me until I read this story that my card was now out of date, and I suspect that many people are in the same position. Consider yourselves notified, and we’ll check back after the stay issue is resolved and the primary dates are finalized to see how the mailouts are progressing.
The easy solution here is to use the maps approved by the Texas Legislature. The VRA needs to die. Now. It serves no useful purpose, other than to waste our money every 10 years as some group gets their undies in a wad over some perceived slight and sues everyone in sight.
Actually, now that I think about it, I should sue to have my street removed from Sheila Jackson Lee’s district, since she’s black, and cannot understand my wants and needs as a middle aged white male.
In truth, she couldn’t care less what I think – her staff has told me that on several occasions.
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