Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Texas Democrats are rallying their troops; Republicans are sounding their trumpets. Both want a big show of force at the Capitol when the Texas Senate hears testimony Tuesday on legislation that would require voters to present photo identification when they vote.

There hasn't been a huge outbreak of people trying to impersonate voters, but the item was deemed an emergency — bigger than the state's sinking economy, bigger than education or any number of other issues you can mention but won't hear about once the brawl starts.

The legislation has the votes to pass easily out of the Senate. The test was earlier when senators voted to abandon a long-standing tradition that bills must enjoy the support of two-thirds of the 31-member Senate to be considered.

Senate tradition went down on an 18-13 vote in January. Only Sen. John Corona, R-Dallas, broke ranks with his party. Corona said then that he supports voter ID but opposed trashing tradition.

So there is little doubt that some sort of voter ID bill will leave the Senate. What happens to the legislation in the House, where Republicans hold a two-vote majority, remains to be seen.

A bill that makes it through both houses and will surely be signed by the governor won't be out of the legal woods, though. Texas is subject to the federal Voting Rights Act, and changes in election law must be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. A U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld a voter ID bill in Indiana, but that state is not covered by the federal voter protection law .

Republican House leaders are already looking for ways to armor plate a voter ID bill before it undergoes Justice Department scrutiny. A phase-in period, provisions for free identification cards and exceptions are all being explored, using Justice David Souter's dissent in the Indiana decision as a guide. The much bigger question is a simple "Why?"

There are occasional cases of voter fraud, but most involve mail-in ballots and occur on such a small scale that they barely register.

Steve Bickerstaff, an election law expert, maintains that in election contests, lawyers go digging for possible fraud because tainted ballots could nullify the election — the result challengers seek. Asked whether he had ever encountered a case of voter impersonation in his career spanning three decades, Bickerstaff said no.

Bottom line: There will be a bill, perhaps even — however farfetched it may seem — one that a brand new Justice Department will bless. However, enacting it will be a time-consuming, shrilly partisan exercise that won't improve the Texas economy, Texas education system or Texas health care. Indeed, the bipartisan cooperation necessary to tackle these problems will be put on the chopping block starting Tuesday when senators hear testimony on a bill that is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Legislation like this stokes emotion but solves little. But then, Texas legislators have far more experience solving nonexistent problems than resolving real ones.