A Texas Election Judges opinion of the Voter ID laws

I am sharing an email I received from a Texas Election Judge in response to my post, I sure do miss the good old days when we had fair and free elections in America too. I would like to thank the Judge for reading and their informative response.~Redeye

Let me preface this by saying that here in Texas, there has recently been passed a new "Voter ID" law ( :-( ) and I don't know yet how the courts will handle that, or how the details will work. So I'm basing what I'm saying below on the prior law and interpretation.

First of all, at least here in Texas, you DO have to provide SOME kind of identification in order to vote (at least to vote normally).

That said, there is a WIDE variety of identification you can provide. What we are trying to determine is that you are who you say you are, and that you are a registered voter in Dallas County (during early voting) and/or the precinct corresponding to the polling place to you are at (on election day proper). You can use a voter registration card (the preferred ID), Texas Drivers License, active duty military ID, pilots license, passport, concealed carry permit, or more. It's not limited to government issued identification: if it shows your photo and your name (and preferably also your signature) that's cool. I have accepted a Sam's Club card, or even a Six Flags season pass.

The one that bothers ME is that we can (must!) also accept a utility bill... and that has neither a photo NOR a signature. That has the further problem that if the utility bill is in the husband's name, the wife can't vote with it, even though she is also covered by that bill. (Theoretically, someone could go down the street and pull utility bills out of the mailboxes on the day they're being delivered, and then use that as ID to vote for all their neighbors!)

Personally, I'm (not surprisingly) an election integrity advocate (and that's a big part of why I work as an election judge).

I want to make sure that the voter presenting themselves at the poll to vote IS the person who they claim to be. Obviously, we check on the computer (during early voting) or in the poll book (on election day) to verify that the person is registered and their voter egistration is active. If the voter has not yet signed their voter registration card, I ask them to sign it in front of me, and I verify that signature against the signature on their driver's license (which
of course is always signed). After the voter signs the application for voting (during early voting) or the combination form (on election day) I check to make sure that the signature appears to be signed by the same hand as that which signed their reference ID.

Personally, I think a photo ID is much less good than a signature
verification... if I were to cut off my beard and long hair, I wouldn't look anything like my previous picture, but my signature would still match... or if someone had an identical twin, they might look EXACTLY the same, but their signature won't match. So I qualify the voters by always confirming their signature, if possible (again, under current law, I have to accept a utility bill, which doesn't have a signature on it). The important thing is that I as election judge am convinced that the person IS who they claim to be.

I will point out that I've been working as an election judge for more than ten years, and the supposed problem of people trying to vote as someone else simply DOES NOT OCCUR (or at least not in the numbers that would ever change an election's results). This whole Voter ID law initiative, I think, is an attempt to divert attention away from where the real problems are (or MIGHT be), to where they are not.

As I understand things, the new Texas Voter ID law requires that the name on the Drivers License or other official voting ID presented matches the name on the voter registration. Very often (and more often for women than men) the names on the two databases (drivers license database vs. voter registration database) are not styled the same way. It remains to be seen what allowances we will make for that.

Here in Texas, at least, if you do not adequately identify yourself (whatever that involves) you can still vote (if you insist) but that will be a "provisional" ballot, and if you did not present a satisfactory ID, it is safe to predict that your vote WILL NOT BE COUNTED. (The actual determination is officially made by the Ballot Board, but the rule is that voters not presenting proper ID is one sufficient cause for not counting their ballot).

There is some feeling that the newly passed Texas Voter ID law will be thrown out by the courts. That remains to be seen, too.

There are other things that we need to change to make the voting more reliable, auditable, and trustworthy. I've discussed those here before, but that would be off topic for THIS reply, at least.