It might be better to have more people vote than not. When only the very partisan people vote you have a skew to the political process that is not representative of the people.

And if we had more people voting even on a gut feeling, or a whim or just recently motivated by something they saw in an ad or some stupid talking point - at least that would be a pulse too.

That's one of the reasons the repukes keep making it harder to vote. They despise same day voter registration - voting and registering at the same time. They've even managed to cut back on early voting days in some states. They tried that here in Texas, cutting back on early voting days under the guise of "saving money". Bill didn't pass.

Of course we did get the voter suppression photo ID bill for a completely non-existent crime of impersonation voting. Hell we can't even get eligible people to vote, how many ineligible people are going to bother?

That bill is still being reviewed by DOJ. And it will get a court challenge too.

The DOJ has not ruled on SB 14, the Texas voter ID law yet. That ruling is due in the middle of March. The State of Texas has jumped the gun and is assuming that the DOJ will object to this bill and filed suit before the DC court. A group of voters and elected officials have asked to intervene and join this case but that motion is not being heard until the DOJ rules on SB 14.

If the DOJ does not object to SB 14, then the case in Washington become moot and there is no right for third parties to appeal that decision and so the motion to join or intervene will be rejected.

At the last town hall that I spoke at for Congressman Green, the ACLU indicated that it was considering filing a lawsuit if SB 14 was allowed to become law. I have no doubt there will be a great deal of litigation here in that SB 14 has some constitutional issues including being a poll tax (you can not get a "free" id without paying for a birth certificate.

I expect the issue will not be settled by fall election time in 2012. Which is good of course. Because it's a piece of crap voter suppression bill.

The local election official for Fort Bend County told me that he is not sure that this case will be resolved for either the primaries or the general election.

The earliest that we can hold a primary in Texas is May 29 which is the Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday. The GOP nomination contest should be settled by that date which would lead to a very low turnout. I was amused to see the following quote in the OP

“If we have a split primary, I would not want to be a Republican incumbent,” said Jeff Crosby, a Democratic consultant. “Presumably turnout will drop significantly, meaning a larger percentage of the voters will be foaming-at-the-mouth freak shows — a k a the Tea Party. They are the Mikey of politics: They don’t like anyone.”