Voter ID politics

Attorney General Eric Holder is on a special campaign against the state of Texas. Why? Because Texas now requires people to display photo identification when they head to the polls to vote. It is hard to understand why the attorney general opposes voter identification, unless the motive is to try any way possible to win the election. People must have an ID to borrow books from the library or drive a car; why should voting be any different? Giving someone the responsibility to choose who will lead one of the most powerful countries in the world should be valued just as much as having responsibility for a library book or driving a car.

Why has common sense abandoned the Justice Department?

In March, the Department of Justice struck down the 2011 Texas Voter ID law because more than 600,000 of the state's registered voters did not have a driver's license or ID card issued by the state's Department of Public Safety.

If that was the case, why didn't the state of Texas provide free voter ID cards to those who did not have a driver's license or other form of identification?

The Justice Department continued to rationalize that providing free state cards from the public safety agency was not enough because 81 of Texas's 254 counties do not have offices to distribute these voter ID cards. They also noted that a disproportionate number of those people without such identification are Latino.

The fact that the Justice Department is willing to strike down a law because Texas is not willing to distribute these voter ID cards to those who are legal citizens is unfair. What's even more unfair is the possibility that some of those 600,000 voters currently registered in Texas might not even be legal citizens when they could be taking the place of a legal citizen's right to vote in this country.

It is ridiculous that the Justice Department is willing to turn a blind eye to the blatant issue of voter fraud because the demographics that are affected by the law, regardless of whether they might be legal citizens or not, might just help the majority party's interests.

More importantly, why doesn't the mainstream media criticize the Justice Department for something that is so blatantly inappropriate and laughable? Has our society declined to such a level that we would turn a blind eye to ridiculous governmental action on a completely partisan basis? If we have, than our days as a meaningful force in the world are numbered.

If Texas wants to combat voter fraud, it should pay attention to those voters without an ID, not just to give those who may not have opportunity the opportunity to vote, but also to strike from the rolls those who should not be voting in the first place.

---