In his July 10th address to the NAACP, Holder was critical of the Texas voter ID law in particular. Criticizing the state for accepting concealed carry identification, but not student IDs under the voter ID proposal, “Now listen to this, listen to this. Under the proposed law concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student ID’s would not. Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them, we call those poll taxes.”
Concealed carry ID is issued after checking to verify the person is who they say they are - including where they were born. School ID does not - often it does not even verify date of birth.
Need to travel great distances? Just perzakly how far would that be?
Some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them (driver's license)? Every jurisdiction I checked in Texas required a birth certificate in order to be registered in school for the first time.
http://www.cfisd.net/aboutour/regist-prek.htm Where did that go in the intervening years? And if it "got lost" why was it not safeguarded better, seeing as how much it cost?
And some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need? Gee, where are all those organizations holding voter registration drives, and why are they not chipping in to cover the cost? But let's look and see what else besides the $22 is needed to get that birth certificate:
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/vs/reqproc/certified_copy.shtm
Send in the completed application with payment using one of the methods listed in the
table below.
If the birth occurred within the past 75 years, you must include a photocopy of your valid photo ID issued by a governmental entity. The following are acceptable forms of ID:
State-issued driver's license
- State/city/county ID card
- Student ID
- Government employment badge or card
- Prison ID
- Military ID
If you do not have a photo ID, you can instead send a copy of the photo ID of an immediate family member, or you can send copies of two documents showing your name, such as a utility bill and your Social Security card. One of the documents must have your signature.
Why, my goodness! There are ways around needing that pesky driver's license in order to get a birth certificate.
No, they are not poll taxes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_(United_States) Now if those costs were required in order to vote and for no other purpose they would be a poll tax. But having a birth certificate and driver's license/non-driver ID card have many uses besides allowing you to vote.
Let's also address the claim that folks would lose money by being forced to take time off from work in order to obtain these documents. Unless my reading skills suddenly went away the entire application process for getting both a birth certificate and registering to vote
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml can be done by mail. Since they sell stamps in grocery stores and other places besides the Post Office even the claim of not being able to get there before they close is taken away.
So - what do we have here? Some folks say it's just an attempt to let folks who are ineligible to vote by virtue of not being a citizen not only cast a ballot in favor of getting more government cheese but using the fact of voter registration as a wedge to obtaining actual citizenship.
stay safe.