Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

In Texas, the biggest problem facing our electoral system is the voters' shamefully low participation in choosing our representatives and leaders. Yet instead of encouraging more people to exercise this fundamental right, some lawmakers in Austin are hard at work trying to make it more difficult to vote.

With no proof of significant voter fraud in state elections, the Texas House is considering bills that would require voters to provide additional identification in order to register and cast their ballots. Not only is the legislation unjustified, if enacted it could disenfranchise large numbers of the elderly, the poor and minorities.

Republicans have promoted voter identification legislation as a cure for ballot fraud, though documented voter impersonation cases are rare. Democrats contend the measures are really aimed at suppressing Election Day turnout among their traditional support groups.

On Monday the House approved, mostly along partisan lines, a bill sponsored by Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. It would require a person who has a valid voter registration card to also present another form of identification before casting a ballot. The additional identification could be driver's license, a Department of Public safety identification card or a work ID card, among other things.

As an alternative, voters could present two forms of nonphoto ID, including utility bills, a library card or even a state hunting and fishing license. Many of these items could be easily obtained or forged by unqualified voters, making the requirements not only burdensome to election officials and legitimate participants, but also ineffective in proving a voter's identity.

Although the bill exempts voters over 80 from its strictures, that remedies only a small segment of those who would be unfairly inconvenienced by its provisions.

A second bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, would require applicants for voter registration cards to provide a certified copy of a document providing proof of citizenship. Previously, the statute simply required that voters sign a postcard affirming their citizenship and return the form to the county clerk's office. A birth certificate, U.S. citizenship papers or a valid passport would be required as proof of citizenship.

Many qualified voters do not have ready access to such documents and those who do would be required to get certified copies, a process that would undoubtedly reduce the number of people registering to vote. It would also undercut bipartisan voter registration drives because of the difficulty in assembling such documentation. King's bill will be considered next week.

In an essay in the Austin-based Quorum Report, former state GOP political director Royal Masset makes the case that Brown's bill would effectively strip the ability to vote from many qualified Texans.

"Anyone who says all legal voters under this bill can vote doesn't know what he is talking about," Masset writes. "And anyone who says a lack of IDs won't discriminate against otherwise legal minority voters is lying."

Texas is ranked next to last in the nation in its citizens' level of political participation. The Legislature should be trying to get more qualified voters to participate, not putting up additional hurdles that would lower the already pathetic turnout.

In the previous legislative session, similar ill-conceived, partisan election bills passed in the House but then expired when the Senate refused to consider them. The bills deserve the same fate this time around.