By SVREP Vice President Lydia Camarillo @lcamarillo1
When the DC Federal Court and the Southern District of Texas both declared Texas’ 2013 Voter ID Law (SB14) unconstitutional for violating the voting rights of Latinos, et al Texas Governor Abbott saw it fit to revive Voter ID in 2017’s legislative session. Thus, SB5 was resurrected and the Texas House placed it on the calendar and it will be heard Tuesday, May 23rd.
Voter ID laws in Texas and other states are used to suppress and dilute minority votes. The evidence in various lawsuits against Voter ID have proved that widespread in-person voter fraud by ineligible persons does not exist. Note: then Attorney General Abbott spent an estimated 1.4 million tax dollars in the attempt to prove voter fraud.
SVREP stands by its position that SB5 is unnecessary and continues to oppose SB14, the Voter ID bill passed in 2013 Texas legislature and signed by Governor Perry in 2013.
In the 2016 general elections in Wisconsin a Pew Study estimated 300,000 voters were turned away for lack of the allowed voter ID. Fact: Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in Wisconsin’s election by less than 20,000 votes.
Texas has no history, present or past, of widespread voting by noncitizens. Noncitizens do not want to be found especially in today’s political climate with President Trump’s aim to deport all 11 million undocumented people residing in the United States.
Texas’ new sB4 which engenders racial-profiling deepens an already ready existing anti-immigrant climate of fear which it highly unlikely that a noncitizen would even try to vote.
Thousands of eligible Texans are denied the right to register to vote and many eligible voters are turned away from the polls every election. We need to spend time ensuring that every eligible voter who has the right to vote can register to vote and cast their vote for their candidates of choice instead of wasting time and resources addressing nonexistent issues.
It is simple, Texas and other states can increase civic participation of citizens in the US by passing legislation for:
1. Automatic voter registration
2. Online voter registration
Let us roll up our sleeves to get America to vote and stop any efforts that suppresses or dilutes the Latino or Black vote.
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