Voter photo ID - Why not just have a Voter photo registration ID?

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by kidicarus89

If you want to get nitpicky, CA is one of the least dependent on federal tax dollars. They take in less than they output to other states. The poor southern states/red states tend to take in more in federal money than they generate. Texas is somewhere in the middle.

Actually if you look at return on investment you are not completely correct.

Texas Gets back .79 cents for every dollar. Rank 19

California gets back .68 cents for ever dollar. Rank 13

Rich and liberal Connecticut gets back $1.04 back. Rank 30

[KerrTown]

Dopo, transitioning from the stupid voter registration certificate to an photographic voter registration card would have been the most logical thing to do--except that the incompetent GOP can't run the state properly.

The new voter registration card would have a durable barcode printed on the plastic card, scanned to speed up the check-in queue. The barcode would eliminate keying errors from querying the database to find the voter's record and save the poor volunteer from carpal tunnel syndrome at the end of the day.

Of course requiring everyone to lodge their voter registration form or trade in their voter registration certificate at the Tax Assessor-Collector/Elections Administrator or DPS office and snap a picture would disenfranchise the GOP base. So the great thinkers of ALEC decided to create a dragnet to catch the correct targets of minorities, urban residents, and the less affluent with a Catch-22 ID-that-is-not-really-an-ID. (Of course the voting certificates are now almost useless, except for the barcode.)

Originally Posted by rynetwo

TxDPS - Election Identification Certificate (EIC)

The "free" ID is not even a valid ID. It says "For Election Purposes Only; Cannot Be Used As Identification" (emphasis mine).

The documentation requirements (and effort) are the same as the valid Texas ID card. The difference is from the Catch-22 of the $15 fee, now a new, obvious poll tax. There are still some people alive who were born at home in the middle of nowhere who don't have a birth certificate because of that circumstance. Baptismal certificates recently became unacceptable documentation.

If you rely on public transportation or live in The Loop, where is the nearest DPS office? There are no DPS offices inside The Loop anymore; the closest being the Dacoma office near 290 and 610. (Obviously there should be a DPS office in Downtown Houston!!!) But there are plenty of DPS offices in the suburbs and the rural areas--GOP strongholds--and usually not accessible, within reason, by public transportation.