Arizona: I like this Lady!
Lets see now, the Rats say the following terrible things about requiring voter ID's: "they are an unnecessary obstacle to voting; requiring ID's is legally offensive; they impose an unnecessary burden and people are denied their right to vote". What the Democrats are really saying here is that anything that could possibly prevent them from cheating shouldn't be allowed!/my words.
Lawmaker wants to require ID from voters
By HOWARD FISCHER
Capitol Media Services
01/09/2003
PHOENIX --- A veteran state lawmaker wants Arizonans to have to produce some form of identification before they vote at the next election.
Rep. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, is crafting legislation that would mandate would-be voters first show either a card with a photograph or two other forms of identification with the person's name and address. Gray wants the measure enacted this session.
But the plan is drawing fire from Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, who said it is an unnecessary obstacle to voting.
Gray said she never gave the issue much thought until she saw some "door hangars,'' literature left by the Arizona Democratic Party. She said one of the things emphasized was that people could vote without showing any form of identification.
"Now what is the point in emphasizing 'go vote and do not show your ID?' " Gray asked. "It sends up a red flag to me of voter fraud.''
Congress last year approved some changes in voting law that require states to get identification when people register to vote the first time. If they register by mail, then their ID would be checked the first time they vote. But, unlike what Gray wants to do, there would be no subsequent checks.
Paul Haggerty, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, said the perennial checking is both unnecessary and legally offensive. "We are against having to show ID for the same reason that the Supreme Court is against it: You don't have to have an identification card to be a citizen of this country,'' he said.
Haggerty said the new federal legislation deals with the issue when it is appropriate: when someone first registers to vote. He said even existing state law gave county recorders the power to check someone's residency at the time of registration, which is all that he believes is necessary.
Lopez said Gray's proposal imposes an unnecessary burden.
"We do not want to disenfranchise people, that when folks get to the polls they are denied their right to vote,'' she said.
She acknowledged that voters who drive probably would have no problem meeting the requirement. After all, Lopez said, they would have an Arizona driver's license. More problematic, she said, are those who don't drive, possibly because they are disabled, who have to use dial-a-ride services or other transportation to get to the polls -- and may show up without an acceptable identification. "Then what happens to you?'' she asked.
Gray said her bill will permit various forms of identification to be used. For example, she said, if someone lacks a state-issued ID card with a photo, two other items with someone's name and address, such as utility bills, could qualify
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=57003
Texas:
In Hidalgo County, requiring accurate voting registrating lists is "scaring people from voting and deterring minorities from voting".....at least according to good Democrats!
Deceased voter rolls divide Hidalgo County Republicans, state
By STEVE TAYLOR
The Brownsville Herald
AUSTIN — The Secretary of State’s office has disputed the accuracy of a survey that found 15,000 dead or unqualified people on Hidalgo County’s voter rolls.
In an internal e-mail dated Dec. 19, Elections Division Program Administrator Karen Richards says that based on the limited information her office has received, the criteria used to identify deceased voters is "unreliable" and that the method used to determine incorrect addresses is "wrong."
A more accurate figure for "deceased records" with an active voter registration on Hidalgo County’s voter list is 1,580, Elections Director Ann McGeehan wrote in a Dec. 20 letter to Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro.
The computer-assisted study was commissioned by Hidalgo County Republican Party and conducted by Austin-based Voter Views, Inc.
Voter Views General Manager R.L. Edwards denounced the decision to release the correspondence, claiming he had answered every point raised about his survey in a meeting held with elections division staff last month.
"I am furious. I think it is disingenuous of the Secretary of Staff’s office to release to Hidalgo County a private e-mail that was sent to me without including my strong rebuttal," Edwards said.
"It is also unfair to me as a private business owner. I still have not been told why my report has failed the standard for the level of integrity to be considered or even utilized."
Voter Views’ study caused a storm of controversy when selected parts of it were released by Hidalgo County Republican Party Chairman Hollis Rutledge in the run-up to the Nov. 5 general election.
Rutledge said the county’s failure to maintain voter files "dramatically increased the opportunity for voter fraud and mischief in November’s elections."
Democrats countered that the survey was designed to deter minority voters from showing up at the polls.
Throughout the controversy, Navarro kept in regular touch with the Secretary of State’s office. She said the correspondence from Austin "vindicated" the county’s decision to not adopt the Voter View report.
"I knew from the outset that this report was seriously flawed, misleading and totally untrue and the Secretary of State’s investigation vindicates the position I took," Navarro said.
"I felt I needed to pursue this matter because it had received so much publicity. It had tarnished the reputation of the elections division so much that I was not going to just let it go."
In a Dec. 20 letter to Navarro, McGeehan confirms that Edwards and two lawmakers – state Reps. Mary Denny, R-Aubrey, and Betty Brown, R-Terrell – met with Secretary of State officials in December to "review statistical data that Voter Views had tabulated on the number of deceased persons still residing on the official voting list for Hidalgo County."
McGeehan said her office was not able to obtain a list from Voter Views of the "deceased voters," but was told the file exceeded 15,000 voters.
"We note that during the meeting, Voter View gave conflicting information regarding what criteria was used to identify the 15,000 voters flagged as deceased," McGeehan wrote.
McGeehan says the Secretary of State’s office has deceased records dating back to July 21, 1997. Those records indicate that a total of 5,805 deceased persons have been identified and sent to Hidalgo County since 1997. Of those 5,805 deceased records, a total of 1,580 have an accurate voter registration.
Navarro said that out of a total voter roll of approximately 250,000 voters, 1,580 was not a high percentage. "We dealt with the information the day we got it. It’s been remedied," she said.
Hidalgo County Clerk J.D. Salinas said the Secretary of State’s correspondence proved the county was right to ignore a "highly suspect and partisan survey that was designed to scare people from voting."
Salinas said he was "appalled" by a letter Edwards had sent to Navarro on Nov. 26, which mentioned the bad publicity the county had received over its voter rolls on the Rush Limbaugh nationally-syndicated radio show.
In the letter, Edwards said his company could "simplify this issue and very quickly produce positive results, which will diffuse much of the criticism of ineptness."
"We have wasted energy and money on a problem that pretty much did not exist," Salinas said. "Voter Views was looking for $5,000-plus of Hidalgo County taxpayers’ money even though to this day they have still not handed over this report."
Rutledge said he stood by the Voter Views report and his party’s decision to commission it.
"R.L. Edwards has spent around $2 million on software to produce very accurate reports," Rutledge said. "As far as I know the Secretary of State’s office has not allowed him to sit down and explain his methodology."
Rutledge said Republicans were not interested in "pointing fingers" at anybody. "The survey showed 4,223 names that were potentially dead. The issue is all about integrity and we still have a problem."
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/sections/archive/topstoryjmp/1-3-03/NEWS6.htm