VoteRiders is launching what we hope to become a nationwide Voter ID Network in Houston/Harris County, Texas. Please check out this article in MySanAntonio.com to learn more. Excerpt below the curlicue.
There are an estimated 84,511 in Harris County without the IDs, home to Houston, the state's most populous city. Statewide, the Justice Department in 2012 said some 1.4 million Texans, disproportionately minority, would be affected.
But, the state is going through non-extraordinary extraordinary lengths to accommodate these folks. You know, “free” IDs. IFs are more like it — if you can get to a DPS office even if it expands its hours; if your county, among the state's 254, even has a DPS office; if a mobile DPS office manages to get to your town and if you can pay for the documents to get this document.
Those are a lot of ifs and a lot of effort involved, which is the point — folks sitting out elections. No one should. This is why VoteRiders exist.
California attorney Kathleen Unger formed the organization because she saw state after state rolling out voter ID and recognized what a whole lot of folks did. People who were voting, suddenly wouldn't. And folks without the proper ID might never.
VoterRiders has hired a Texas coordinator, Marianela Acuña Arreaza, lately involved in the Texas Civic Engagement Table's “Got ID, Texas” campaign.
MySanAntonio.com