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Melissa G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 02:38 PM
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Voter IDs: a Modern Poll Tax?
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X post from Election reform... A nice Texas History Lesson...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=502164&mesg_id=502164


Voter IDs: a Modern Poll Tax?
by James C. Harrington
Despite innuendo, there actually is no proof of any widespread fraud in Texas, at least not the kind that government ID would take care of. In fact, there are far greater possibilities of fraud or malfunction with Texas’ paperless electronic voting machines.

Posted on May 8, 2008
For the last half century, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court steadily have undone voting impediments created by local and state governments. That effort came to a screeching halt on April 28, however, when the high court upheld Indiana's onerous law requiring voters to present a state-issued photo identification card, with an expiration date, on election day.

snip

Texas originally started out enabling people to vote, rather than impeding them. The delegates to the 1875 convention, which gave us our current constitution, lead by Grangers and progressive Republicans, rejected a variety of electoral impediments: poll taxes, literacy tests, property taxes, and multi-member legislative and judicial districts.

The delegates rejected schemes to limit suffrage because they understood that denying the franchise to African Americans inevitably would deprive them of the political power they needed to break state government's unholy alliance with big business, railroads, and monopolies.

The 1876 Constitution reflects a populist revolt that gave Texas some of the broadest suffrage rights in the nation. For example, until 1919 non-citizens could vote if they met the residency requirement and declared their intent to become citizens.

more
http://www.newspapertree.com/opinion/2428-voter-ids-a-modern-poll-tax
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