Good grief it is going to be a long, long year waiting for Greg Abbott to put Wendy Davis into the boneyard littered with former great liberal hopes for the Texas Democratic Party. The constant cheerleading by the Texas media is already sickening, so can you imagine how we’re going to feel a year from now?
The latest episode has the press fawning over her because when she went to vote, the ID she used was not an exact match for the name on her voter registration card. Because of that, she had to take two seconds to sign an affidavit stating that she was the person on the list of registered voters. The press had a field day with that one, using it to point out how “bad” the Texas Voter ID law is.
The problem is that it didn’t point out anything except exactly how lazy the Texas media is. Because if they had performed about 2 seconds of research as to why the abortion queen had to sign the affidavit, they would have discovered that the queen herself was responsible for that particular clause in the law.
From the Senate Journal for January 26, 2011:
Senator Davis offered the following amendment to the bill:
Floor Amendment No. 41
Amend SB 14 in SECTION 7 of the bill, in amended Section 63.001(c), Election Code (page 4, line 6), by adding after the period “If in determining whether a voter’s name is on the list of registered voters the election officer determines that the voter’s name on the documentation is substantially similar but does not match exactly the name on the list, the voter shall be accepted for voting as otherwise required by this section if the voter submits an affidavit stating that the voter is the person on the list of registered voters.”
The amendment to SB 14 was read and was adopted by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
Absent-excused: Uresti
So basically we have a fake blonde moment here. “I had to sign an affidavit saying that I was Wendy Davis!” “Oh, I put that amendment in? Ooopsie!”
Peggy Fikac of the Houston Chronicle pushed the story out and then had to issue an update. But her update is very misleading:
UPDATE: Sen. Davis offered the amendment to the Voter ID law that provided for the affidavit when the measure was approved in the Senate in 2011.
The amendment reads, “If in determining whether a voter’s name is on the list of registered voters the election officer determines that the voter’sname on the documentation is substantially similar but does not match exactly the name on the list, the voter shall be accepted for voting as otherwise required by this section if the voter submits an affidavit stating that the voter is the person on the list of registered voters.”
Davis voted against the measure.
So, she put forth the amendment and then voted against it? No, she voted for it. She voted against the ultimate bill but she owns this amendment. Details, details. But hey, anything to push a far left Democratic nutcase, right Peggy?
Sally Belladonna Baggins Stricklett says
Excellent information David.
bob42 says
I agree that the press is lazy. It sounds to me that had her amendment not been included in the bill that passed, she and many other women would have only been allowed to cast provisional ballots, creating a lot of trouble on both sides of the voting machine. It’s a good amendment to a largely unnecessary law.
Erin Anderson says
Correction: Complicit Media. They had this story cued up weeks ago, in tandem with Judge Watts who (purposely) gave the impression that she’d been “blocked” from voting when she also just had to initial the poll book. I’d say it’s Davis who was too lazy to inform her voters of the process she’s known better than anyone was coming for over 2 years.
Jim B says
The amendment didn’t create the issue, it solved one.
As bob42 points out, the statute without the amendment would have barred Davis (and Abbot it seems) from casting a ballot. They would have been entitled to a provisional, but that’s not the same thing, requiring them to provide PROOF of the correct name within a short period (a week or ten days, I think) AFTER the election when it mostly wouldn’t matter.
Davis rightly supported the amendment, knowing the bill would pass without her final affirmative vote.
Denise Flores says
Oh Jim:
Your response makes too much sense for this forum. 🙂
Mark Armstrong says
This is a great article. What’s even better is that if each of those commenting will forward this to two other people, it will have a larger readership than the
ChronicleComical.Rhymes W. Right says
Let’s not forget that Greg Abbott ALSO had to sign the same affidavit for the same reason. So much for “picking on the women” meme