Thread: Many Texans favor photo IDs to vote, poll indicates

Many favor photo IDs to vote, poll indicates
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Posted: 06/23/2009 11:13:31 PM MDT



AUSTIN -- A bill requiring prospective voters to bring photo identification to the polls divided the Capitol this year, but Texans overwhelmingly like the idea, according to a statewide poll released Tuesday.

More than 70 percent said they favored the voter identification measure, according to a wide-ranging poll conducted by the Texas Lyceum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group.

Though voter ID was a bitter, divisive issue for legislators, it did not resonate with ordinary citizens, the pollsters said.

"Nobody seems to care much about the issue," said Daron Shaw, a University of Texas at Austin government professor who worked on the poll.

In a telephone survey of 860 adults across the state, the group found that Texans' biggest concerns were the economy and unemployment.

"Across the board, the economy dominated," Shaw said.

The economy was a big issue in Austin, too, but lawmakers spent much of the 140-day legislative session this year consumed by a partisan fight over the proposal to require voters to show photo ID at the polls.

Republicans said the requirement was crucial to maintaining integrity at the ballot box. Democrats countered that requiring a photo ID would make it harder for thousands of elderly, minority and poor people to vote.

"I think in El Paso, we would lose 20 to 25 percent of the voters the first time it was implemented," said state Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso.

Democrats in the Texas House prevented a vote on the voter-ID proposal

by slowing business in the chamber to a crawl and pushing the controversial measure past a critical deadline.
Shaw said the poll showed that Democrats were on the wrong side of public opinion on the voter-ID issue. But, he added, the issue did not appear to be as important to voters as Republicans had made it out to be.

"Nobody listed it anywhere on the radar screen as a critical issue in the state, let alone the country," he said.

But Sebastian Martinez, a precinct chairman who lives near Ascarate Park, said he worried that requiring photo ID would discourage older voters from going to the polls.

"Some of these elderly walk to the precinct because they don't have a driver's license anymore, and so what other kind of picture ID would they have?" he asked.

The poll found that Texans agreed that the economy and unemployment were the most important issues.

Nearly 60 percent said they thought the nation was worse off now than it was a year ago, and 53 percent said they expected the worst was yet to come.

Pollster James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin, said the poll also showed Texans had diverse opinions on social issues and how to spend tax dollars.

"The extent to which Texas is a diehard red state, I think, has always been exaggerated," Henson said. "On public-policy issues, in many ways, it's a practical state."

The poll showed that most Texans did not oppose same-sex unions. Nearly 60 percent said they would support civil unions or same-sex marriages.

Most Texans also said they would support spending on roads, education and health care, even if it meant a higher national deficit. But most opposed bailouts for financial institutions and automakers.

Laura Mitchell, who lives on the West Side, said the most important issues she saw facing Texas and the nation were health care and preserving gun rights and traditional marriage.

Marriage, she said, should be reserved for heterosexual couples.

"I think it changes what marriage is by definition," Mitchell said, "and if gay marriage is fine, then poly gamy is fine, too."

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_12676276

What is wrong with proving who you are and that you have a right to vote? People who are poor should have some form of ID so it shouldn't be a problem. I don't know anyone who doesn't have some sort of ID.

My 96 year old Aunt had a NON drivers licence issued by the DMV....so where is the problem?