House nears approval on Senate-passed voter ID bill

AUSTIN – After a civil debate, but one carrying the undertones of intentional racial discrimination, the Texas House was poised Tuesday to give preliminary approval to legislation that would rewrite the state’s 6-year-old voter ID law.

The preliminary vote was expected late Tuesday with a final vote coming Wednesday to send the measure back to the Senate to consider changes made in the House.

Senate Bill 5 had all but been left for dead since passing the upper chamber in March until Gov. Greg Abbott declared it a legislative emergency Sunday night, about a week before the session comes to an end. And when it was brought the House floor, it rekindled the smoldering tension between House Democrats and Republicans over whether the legislative process is being used this year to target minorities.

“If it's not about race, what is it about?” said state Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio.

But the bill’s sponsor, Weatherford Republican Phil King, said the measure is needed to address the flaws in the 2011 law requiring voters to bring approved documents with a photo to the polling place on election day.

U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ruled last year that law undermines minority voter rights and in April she found that the law was enacted by the Republican-led Legislature specifically to discriminate against minorities.

King rejected the judge’s assertion, saying “I don’t believe any of us intended in any way to discriminate.”

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But he did acknowledge that the flaws in the law need to be addressed to satisfy the courts. Many of the provisions would track instructions from the court heading into last November’s elections to make accommodations for people who cannot reasonably obtain one of the state-approved IDs.

But Democrats, outnumbered 95-55 in the House, mounted several challenges to the portion of the legislation that would impose criminal penalties carrying prison time for someone who gives false information to get around the photo-ID requirement.

King early on defended the prison-time penalties, saying they were needed to discourage voter fraud. Democrats, including Fort Worth’s Ramon Romero, argued that the mere threat of prison time would scare some voters unable to obtain ID from even trying to seek accommodations that would allow them to cast ballots.

But El Paso Democrat Joe Moody persuaded King to scuttle the prison component and instead make the offense a misdemeanor that carries on one month in county jail.

Another Democratic amendment that was tacked onto the bill would put in place a plan to educate voters about the voter ID law and to explain the process for voting to those unable to get an approved ID.

More than a dozen other Democratic amendments opposed by King were voted down along party lines.

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Because Democrats and various organizations allied with them in most political skirmishes have had success challenging voter ID in court, much of their strategy in the floor debate was to lay the foundation for future legal action once Abbott signs S.B. 5 into law,

State Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, asked that all remarks on the House floor be preserved in writing. Anchia also suggested that the list of approved identification forms be expanded to virtually any government-issued ID, rather than limiting them to things like driver’s licenses, passports and handgun permits.

That would reduce the need for elections officers to have someone sign an affidavit saying they were unable to obtain one of the approved IDs, Anchia said.

King rejected the idea, saying there are thousands of government entities that issue IDs and elections officers would have a hard time ensuring that an ID from an obscure governmental entity was valid, and the Republicans followed his lead. Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, predicted that they would come to regret that vote.

"When every one of you Republicans vote against (Anchia's amendment), it will make our case in federal court," he said.

Republicans are trying to clean up the 2011 law found lacking by the courts, but Democrats say the measure still seeks to suppress minority turnout at the polls.

Accepted voter ID

• Texas driver license
• Texas Election Identification Certificate
• Texas personal identification card
• Texas license to carry a handgun
• U.S. military identification card
• U.S. citizenship certificate with photo
• U.S. passport