Texas Today

I’ve been out of the blogosphere for a few months now while I finish my last semester of school, but for some reason I got a little interested today. So I checked on the status of HB 265 , a bill regarding same day voter registration and turns out there’s a public meeting on Wednesday 02/28. The bill author, Rep. Anchia and the rest of the Elections Committee will hear testimony from the League of Women Voters, American Way, and anyone else who follows proper guidelines and is present in Austin. According to Damien Brockmann, Rep. Anchia’s Director of Legislation and creator of Billhop.com, with whom I spoke with earlier today, anything we can do to push this bill through would be helpful. So contact the Reps on the Elections Committee, and tell them your opinions. Even better, show up in Austin on Wednesday and sign up to testify or to have your stance officially recorded. This bill needs all the help it can get, especially with opposition heading the committee. Which ever side you sit on, if you agree with the legislation being helpful to an independent movement which I’m still not positive that it is, you can bet both sides of this argument offer good points. I hope the hearing does the topic justice. You can watch the hearing online here on Wednesday at around 2:00pm, tentatively.

I was listening to The Chris Duel Show on KTSA a while ago, and he had on The National General Counsel for LULAC, Luis Vera. They were talking about early voting complaints in the Dist. 23 runoff election. 17 out of 19 counties couldn’t get early voting going this weekend despite a court order allowing it. Election laws require minimum voting hours to be equal to the hours of operation of the county’s election office. Many polls in Dist. 23 are only open from 8am-5pm and closed during lunch hours. A few counties are only open until 4:30pm and also closed during lunch hours. Another interesting fact is that Governor Perry and the SoS, Roger Williams allowed the runoff in Dist. 29 to run until Dec. 19th and the Dist. 23 runoff only until Dec. 12th.

If this concerns you, contact the U.S. Dept. of Justice at 202-514-2000, and ask for the Voting Rights Division.

House Bill 265, introduced by TX Rep. Rafael Anchia, would make same day voter registration possible. According to the exact wording:

VOTER REGISTRARS MUST BE PRESENT. Two voter registrars must be present at each polling place while the polls are open.

The registrars would also be allowed to register voters on election day in the primary and general elections with proper documentation. The bill also makes these newly registered voters valid voters capable of voting on election day.

Another bill, HB 123, introduced by Rep. Aaron Pena, would require a paper trail for electronic voting machines.

from Ballot-Access News (Richard Winger):

Texas Bill to Abolish Straight-Ticket Device

December 2nd, 2006

Texas State Senator Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) has introduced SB134, to abolish the straight-ticket device [on the Texas ballot].

Please contact your state senators to encourage them to co-sponsor or vote for this legislation. The straight-ticket line currently encourages laziness by voters and is a boon to the major parties, who can count on a certain number of straight-ticket votes every election. Independent candidates do not have a straight-ticket option. Polls have shown that its use by most voters is declining anyway.

Find your State Senator here:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/