Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Voter IDs

I received a chart in a recent email that alluded to the relationships between photo IDs and racism. It listed about 30 things for which requiring a photo I.D. is not racist.

These included:

Buying alcohol

Opening a bank account

Applying for Social Security

Buying or renting a house

Driving a car

Getting a prescription

Getting married

Using a credit card

Apply for a hunting or fishing license

Etc., etc.

Then shortly after I received this email, I read with interest a story by Manny Fernandez (N.Y.Times) concerning a Texas voter I.D. Law. On April 10 Nelva Gonzales Ramos, a US District Court judge, ruled that the voter-identification law passed by the Texas legislature in 2011 was enacted with the intent to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters.

“This is an exciting ruling . . .” said Myrna Perez, an deputy director of a group that represented two of the groups that sued the state. In his article Mr. Fernandez opined that Texas has a history of voter discrimination. I thought that it was interesting that the writer of the article, the deputy director, and the Texas judge all had Hispanic surnames, and presumably were all Hispanic.

In 2016 I was taking a Spanish language course, and the teacher was born and raised in Mexico. Just prior to the U.S. November presidential election, she passed around her Mexican voter ID card. The laminated card had her name, her picture, and her thumb-print on it. She said that she could only vote in Mexico if she presented this card, and that no other ID could substitute for this card. She also stated that the penalties for voter fraud were substantial in Mexico.

Now here is the part that befuddles me. If Mexico (with some parts being “third world”) requires a government issued voter picture ID card to vote, why is it discriminatory to require picture identification cards in Texas or any other part of the USA?

Is Judge Ramos saying that the getting of a voter ID is easier in Mexico than it could ever be in “discriminating Texas” or in the “discriminatory U.S.A.”, and because it is more difficult in the U.S.A. than it is in Mexico, it is not legal in the U.S.A.? This would be quite a stretch, and certainly no one would or could believe it.

Or,

Is Judge Ramos implying that the Hispanics in Texas are less capable and less self sufficient than those across the border in Mexico?

Who is the racist here?

 

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