Governor Rick Perry of Texas today signed into law “voter ID” legislation which requires polling places within the state to verify the identity of potential voters with a photo identification card. Voter ID laws are designed primarily to address voter fraud and prevent ineligible citizens, or non-citizens, such as criminal aliens, from participating in elections. Twelve states, including Texas, now have voter ID laws which require photo identification. Seventeen additional states have similar laws which require a form of identification, but not a photo.
Electoral numbers are central to the voter ID issue. Liberals and Democrats have opposed voter ID legislation because, they say, it intimidates and discriminates against certain minorities and socioeconomic groups. Conservatives and Republicans claim that it is simply common sense to require that anyone wanting to vote in a public election show a picture ID to prove their eligibility. Democrats gain voters in the absence of voter ID laws because those who are ineligible to vote, such as illegal aliens and felons, tend to vote Democrat.
On May 10, 2011, President Obama spoke to a primarily Hispanic crowd in El Paso, Texas, about his vision for comprehensive immigration reform. Such reforms would include the “Dream Act,” which grants in-state college tuition privileges to illegal aliens. In his speech he also mocked the idea of a border fence to control the movements of criminal aliens and drug cartels from Mexico into the United States. Many regarded this speech as a slap in the face to those who live in border cities and towns across the South Western United States, and who have to live with the harmful consequences of illegal immigration.
Governor Perry pushed back boldly today as he signed the nation’s latest voter ID law. Texas, of all the states, has the longest southern border with Mexico and is heavily impacted by criminal activities and illegal immigrants that pour across the Rio Grande each day. The estimated cost for K-12 public education of illegal immigrants alone is over $1 billion. Texas also reports cost expenditures for illegal alien children with special health needs as being nearly 3 times that of citizen children with similar concerns. Nationwide it has been shown that illegal aliens have voted within the margin of error in several states, essentially stealing elections across the country.
Full Article: Perry’s Provocative Push Back | Technorati Politics.