Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Starting today, experts and the public are set to testify afresh on a Republican-sought mandate that Texas voters present a photo ID or two identifying documents at the polls before casting ballots.

But county district attorneys, the officials generally entrusted with prosecuting crime, aren't expected to participate.

The ID issue is "not on our radar screen," said Rob Kepple, executive director of the Texas District & County Attorneys Association. "We haven't heard any prosecutors raising concerns one way or the other."

What people say in the Texas House hearings scheduled through Tuesday might fuel how House members change Sen. Troy Fraser's ID proposal, which Republican senators sent the House last month. Next, a House committee and then the full House would probably vote on the revised version, leaving the Senate with the option of signing off on the result or seeking compromise talks.

Curiously, local prosecutors never have joined the simmering debate over whether voters should better prove their identities.

Democrats say the ID requirement would attack a nonexistent problem of voter impersonation and is really an attempt to reduce the turnout of minority and elderly voters.

Republicans say the rarity of impersonation cases makes their point that people at the polls merit more scrutiny. Current law permits voters to proceed after presenting their voter registration cards or after showing a photo ID and signing in.

Legislators on opposite sides of the ID fight have conflicting takes on why district attorneys keep low profiles on voter fraud.

Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, chaired the House Committee on Elections through 2008. He said it's his inference from testimony by local election administrators that prosecutors don't prioritize election law violations.

"There's so much fraud that even the district attorney or the attorney general won't prosecute it," Berman said. "If they did, they'd have to stop prosecuting murderers and rapists."

Democratic Rep. Rafael Anchía of Dallas, who served with Berman on the panel and remains a member, countered that prosecutors are quiet because voter fraud isn't widespread.

The legislative record "is replete with wild allegations," Anchía said before floating an analogy: "There are all sorts of allegations about UFOs — about Bigfoot, too. What the record lacks is serious proof."

Prosecutors in several counties reported few voting fraud charges. They parted on whether fraud needs attention at the Capitol.

Patricia Lykos, Harris County's district attorney, said a photo ID mandate would deter fraud.

Lykos said it's hard to prove voter fraud now because poll workers can't always swear that a person actually voted. Her concern: The security number given to each voter to input before casting a ballot on a voting machine isn't separately recorded.

"What we need is legislation to record that number to show that the person who came in and was given that number (by a poll worker) actually voted," Lykos said.

Rosemary Lehmberg, the Travis County district attorney, said the county has prosecuted five or six cases in the past few years. She singled out charges against individuals voting more than once in primaries and a name-changing resident who voted twice in the 2004 general election.

Generally, Lehmberg said, voter impersonation "doesn't appear to be a problem."

John Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney, said he fields one or two voter fraud allegations every election year but hasn't prosecuted one in a while.

He recalled a recent allegation that a woman had voted twice. Further inquiry revealed that she'd started to vote one day but left for a personal appointment before voting. She cast a ballot later.

Last year, Bexar County officials looked into residents who said they weren't citizens on jury applications but held voter registration cards. Two people faced charges for falsely claiming they weren't citizens.

Cliff Herberg, the county's first assistant district attorney, said the greatest election fraud issue probably relates to individuals who help the elderly and homebound with mail-in ballots.

Broadly, he said, how voters identify themselves is appropriately a legislative matter.

"You have to make a decision on whether or not to make voting easier or more difficult," he said.