We’ve known, thanks to analyses such as this based on Reuters/Ipsos polling data, that voter ID laws will suppress voting by younger folks, those without college education, the poor and Hispanics. But married women? A story out of Corpus Christi should be raising eyebrows about the negative impact the Texas voter ID requirement may have. When 117th District Court Judge Sandra Watts went for early voting, her identity was questioned because she uses her maiden name as her middle name. She uses her real middle name on her voter registration. So she had to sign an affidavit saying she was, indeed, who she said she was. It was the first time in 49 years of voting that her identity has been questioned and she has had trouble voting. “What I have used for voter registration and for identification for the last 52 years was not sufficient yesterday when I went to vote,” Judge Watts said. And this is a judge.
Imagine how this could all play out on election day. What if a woman’s name is hyphenated in one ID, but not hyphenated on another?
Fire up the lawyers.
All this mess because the state legislature passed – and Attorney General Greg Abbott has rabidly defended – a political statement looking for a voter fraud problem.
“I have never seen an issue of that in Nueces County, in all the years that I’ve been here,” District Attorney Mark Skurka told Kiii-TV News.
Full Article: Voter ID law: already disorder at the polls | Dallas Morning News.