Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

During the latter part of the 20th century, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court undid barriers created by local and state governments to disenfranchise minority and poor voters, even outlawing the hated poll tax. The high court undermined hat effort a year ago, when it tentatively upheld Indiana's onerous law requiring voters to present a state-issued photo identification card on Election Day.

The Texas Senate just rammed through a similar law, which goes to the House of Representatives for a vote.

This scheme works against older voters who no longer drive or travel, those with disabilities, minority and poor people, individuals who recently became citizens, college students, and homeless persons. No matter how long people have voted in their precinct, how well known they are known to election staff, or have other IDs, they still must get a driver's license or specified government ID.

Texas Republicans, lead by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state Rep. Leo Berman from Tyler, want to extend this burden to Texas voters. Surely, although they would deny it, their real agenda is to dilute the electoral strength of individuals, who tend to vote Democratic and whose numbers increase every year. There is no other viable explanation.

Despite innuendo, there actually is no proof of any widespread fraud in Texas, at least not the kind that government ID would take care of. In fact, there are far greater possibilities of fraud or malfunction with Texas' paperless electronic voting machines. Berman isn't concerned about that.

Texas originally enabled people to vote, rather than impeding them. The delegates to the 1875 convention, which gave us our current constitution, lead by Grangers and progressive Republicans, rejected various electoral impediments: poll taxes, literacy tests, property taxes, and multi-member legislative and judicial districts.

The delegates rejected schemes to limit suffrage because they understood that denying the franchise to blacks inevitably would deprive them of the political power they needed to break state government's unholy alliance with big business, railroads, and monopolies.

The 1876 Constitution reflects a populism that gave Texas some of the broadest suffrage rights in the nation. For example, until 1919, non-citizens could vote if they met residency requirements and declared their intent to become citizens.

Anti-voting laws came into Texas in the early 1900's to disenfranchise blacks, who voted in significantly higher proportions than did whites; the poll tax, multi-member districts, and the white primary all became law. Even those tricks didn't work totally, and the KKK used a violent campaign to suppress black voter turnout. Similar tactics repressed Mexican American voting.

The Voting Rights Act and Supreme Court undid much of that history, and minority electoral strength increased dramatically. However, Texas Republican leaders now want to build another hurdle to people voting.

The photo ID is essentially a new form of poll tax. It requires people to pay for an ID card, take time off from work, incur transportations costs - all of which are significant burdens to people on fixed incomes. This is a 21st century poll tax.

Voting is a fundamental right, the cornerstone of our democracy. Our legal system should break down election barriers, not build them up. Let's help the House of Representatives remember this before it votes on the bill.

James C. Harrington is director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.