"Voting shouldn't make us angry" is what my husband said today after we voted in the first election in Texas where we are required to have Voter ID. It is also required that your Voter ID name matches exactly your voter registration name. And they don't mean just women, folks.
We voted in Buda (sounds like Bewda) which is near Austin. We don't live in Buda, but live in Hays County so went to vote early there. Our congressman is Roger Williams, who is famous locally for saying that the shutdown (which he voted for) was an inconvenience for him because his shirts were being held in the Congressional laundry, and therefore he had to go buy new shirts. He is a tea partier...and an asshole!
But, I digress. Anyway, we went to vote and I went first and handed my Driver's license and Voter registration card to the older lady whose job it was to check it out. She looked at it the longest time trying to figure out if the names matched each other. After a few minutes, she said they were an exact match, and that I could vote. She seemed quite pleased with herself that she had followed the rules. My husband was after me, and he got the same treatment. Apparently, his Voter ID and Voter registration had to match perfectly. They did, and she declared him able to vote.
When we finished voting, and were walking out, my husband commented that he was surprised that I didn't say something about how ridiculous this law was. He doesn't like to make waves and I generally do. I am angry and wanted to say something in protest, but I realized it wasn't her fault that the law was written. She looked pretty frail, anyway, and I just elected not to say anything. But, I sure wanted to.
The only thing good about these laws is that normally, I would never vote in and off-off year election like this. It was all just a bunch of Propositions that didn't amount to much, but I was determined to vote because of what they have done to the laws in the name of "voter fraud". I can only hope there are people like me who feel the same. And because of these laws and also what the Republicans have done to deny access to women's health and abortion services in Texas, I am signing up to register voters for Battleground Texas. And I am signing up to work for the Wendy Davis for Governor campaign.
"So yes", I said to my husband, "voting shouldn't make us angry. But it is going to take a significant amount of anger and work to turn Texas Blue".
