Election Legislation Preview

 Just months after traveling to Pennsylvania to help the Trump campaign challenge the results of the 2020 election State Rep. Briscoe Cain was named chair of the Texas House Elections Committee. That appointment doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that we’ll see real improvement in our election laws. Nevertheless there are plenty of good bills that if passed would make it easier for eligible voters to register and vote. There may be others filed later in the session and it often happens that the text of a bill is added to another so even though the original bill isn’t passed its goal is achieved. The following are bills I found using the Texas Legislature Online website’s Bill Search function. Using that site you can lookup any of these that catch your attention and read the full text of the bill yourself as well as find new additions, amendments, or bill status as the session goes on. You can even create an account and arrange to get emails when a bill is assigned to a committee, gets a hearing, is amended or passed out of committee, or will be voted on in the House or Senate.

HB 110 would add to the existing list of acceptable proof of identification any official mail addressed to the person by name from a governmental entity or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter

HB 160 and SB 246 would add any identification card issued by a public institution of higher education located in this state that contains the person 's photograph, full legal name, and is either unexpired or expired no earlier than four years before the date of presentation.

HB 230 would greatly expand the types of documents that would be acceptable voter identification to include documents if they show the name and address of the voter including a copy of a current utility bill; a bank or credit union statement; a government check; a certified copy of a domestic birth certificate among others.

HB 1366 allows voter registration card as sufficient ID for voting, removes requirement for photo ID to vote even without registration card and allows substitution of utility bill or birth certificate etc.

HB 142 / HB 519 / HB 712 / HB 856 would all change state law to all same day voter registration so that new voters could register to vote on the same day they cast their ballots.

HB 161 / HB 595 / SB 107 would restore voting rights to felons once they are released from incarceration.

HB 583 / HB 802 / HB 1232 / SB 95 / SB 303 would allow voting by mail by any qualified voter.

HB 844 / HB 1385 would expressly legalize mail ballot drop off sites as designated by the county early voting clerk.

HB 1036 would create limits on campaign contributions for state office such as $7,000 for each candidate for governor; $5,500 for each candidate for a statewide office other than governor; $4,000 for each candidate for the senate; and $2,700 for each candidate for the house of representatives. Political Action Committees would be limited to $30,000 per year for each candidate or officeholder.

HB 1425 / SB 130 would have Texas join the National Popular Vote Compact which would mean that Texas’ presidential electors would cast their ballots for whoever won the national popular vote regardless of the result in Texas. Think President Al Gore in 2000, and President Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 10, 2021

Incompetence, Cheating, and Corruption

The Incompetent in Chief is up to no good once again, this time he’s harping on vote by mail as being wracked by voter fraud when all the evidence is to the contrary. One of the steps he’s taken is to appoint a Postmaster General in his own image who has already begun dismantling the United States Postal Service. Of course, the party of unfettered capitalism has for years attempted to privatize postal operations claiming without evidence that private enterprise can supposedly do it cheaper.

I point to this scheme as evidence of the president’s incompetence for the following reasons. His appointee, Louis DeJoy – a major campaign donor and fundraiser, is the first Postmaster General in 20 years without prior experience in the U.S. Postal Service. DeJoy and his wife have several conflicts of interest including between $30 million and $75 million invested in postal service contractors and competitors like J.B. Hunt trucking and United Parcel Service. If you’ve noticed that your mail is taking longer to arrive than it used to that’s probably because DeJoy has banned overtime and extra trips to deliver mail in order to reduce costs. DeJoy has also ordered the removal of mail sorting machines from a number of major postal facilities. While the president might be considered successful at sabotaging the postal service, a goal his party supports, it’s clear that it isn’t in the best interest of his most avid supporters who mostly live in rural areas populated by older voters where it is the postal service that delivers their prescriptions and other vital supplies at very low costs. In fact unlike private enterprise which charges more to deliver to out of the way places and simply hands off the package to the local post office for final delivery the postal service is required by law to charge the same amount for the same service regardless of location. I can send a letter to Onaka, South Dakota for forty cents through the U.S. Postal Service but if I use Fedex it will cost at least $27.09.

As further evidence of the president’s incompetence he actually stated in an interview on Fox News that he’s withholding support for funding postal operations in order to prevent successful completion of mail in ballots. You’d think he was a movie villain telling the hero the details of his plot just before he tries to execute the hero. What the president fails to understand is that most of the people using mail ballots are his voters, especially here in Texas where you have to be 65 and up or disabled to vote by mail. Those are the very people whose votes he desperately needs if he’s to have a chance to win in November and he seems to be working hard to sabotage himself.

The president has failed to build more than a handful of miles of “the Wall” and Mexico certainly didn’t pay for it. He’s failed in his trade war with China and Europe causing even American icons like Harley Davidson to move at least some production out of the country while causing the American tax payer to pay higher prices on imported goods. Compared to Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader in the Senate, who stole a Supreme Court seat from President Obama this president is totally incompetent and I’m glad of it because he could have been far more destructive were he actually a capable leader.

Early voting starts October 13, get out and vote so we can remove this stumbling buffoon from the White House and restore dignity and respect to the office of President.

 

Democracy in the COVID-19 Crisis

Some of my Libertarian acquaintances have expressed concerns about the government response to the COVID-19 crisis those concerns have been largely about federal funds being for economic stimulus. I see the Democratic Party led effort to provide for those who have lost income and jobs to be just the beginning and a need for more. The real threat I see is to our democracy has to do with steps local, state, and federal governments take or don’t take to preserve the public’s right to know, respond, and vote.

Cibolo’s city council has streamed and recorded video of all meetings including committees like Planning and Zoning. They’ve even held a council meeting completely online to protect everyone’s health while remaining transparent. Some cities aren’t as prepared to be transparent in the midst of the crisis, some are using the crisis as an excuse to avoid public awareness.

Our governor has accepted a delay in the primary runoffs previously scheduled for May 26 now moved to July 14 but we aren’t likely to really be out of the woods and encouraging hundreds of people to stand in lines on election day isn’t good public health practice. There’s a very good chance that it still won’t be safe in November when the general election is scheduled and yet it isn’t realistic to postpone that as both the president and vice-president are constitutionally required to leave office in January regardless of whether or not an election has been held.

Unlike Texas, Wisconsin is full steam ahead for a primary election next Tuesday because of Republican resistance to taking action. On Friday Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, called a special session of the Republican-led state legislature. He summoned lawmakers from the Republican-led chambers to consider legislation to move the primary to mid-May and mandate the use of mail-in absentee ballots for all voters save the disabled, for whom polling stations would remain open exclusively.

Texas should do what many other states have already done and allow every Texan to vote by mail. Current state law provides for voting by mail if the person is 65 or older, disabled, or out of the county during the early voting period as well as election day. All the state legislature has to do is eliminate the qualifications and allow everyone to vote by mail and we can keep our democracy while keeping everyone healthy. Of course that would require the governor to take action, so far he’s shown no interest in doing so.

Of course President Trump isn’t real keen on no excuses vote by mail, he told a Fox News interviewer “that if you ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Trump is not the only Republican admitting that suppressing voters is good for Republicans but he is the most noticeable one. Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston (R) came out against efforts to allow all voters to vote by mail, saying the move could be “devastating” for Republican candidates.

Democracy is hard, it should be about the contest of ideas not voting rights.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 8, 2020