Texas Conservative Coalition Sounds Off On Voter ID 

From a letter dated April 28, 2009 to House Elections Committee Chairman, Rep. Todd Smith,

Dear Chairman Smith:

We are writing to express our full support for HB 125 by Betty Brown, the Voter ID bill, and respectfully ask that you give HB 125 the opportunity to be heard on the House Floor. As you are aware, HB 125 has 58 authors and co‐authors because it is one of the most important bills that must be debated this session.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled Photo ID is constitutional.

The Supreme Court ruled "the universally applicable requirements of Indiana’s voter‐identification law are eminently reasonable.” While an ID requirement may place a burden on voters, the Court concluded that “burdens… arising from life’s vagaries, however, are neither so serious nor so frequent as to raise any question about the constitutionality of [photo ID requirements].”

This legislation is workable because of widespread use of government-issued IDs.

The office of the secretary of state reports that there are 12.7 million
registered voters in Texas as of the March 2008 primary elections.  According to the Department of Public Safety, there are more than 14 million valid Texas driver's licenses and almost another 4 million valid Texas ID cards issued to Texans over age 18. Currently, there are 5.3 million more government‐issued identification cards possessed by the voting age population than there are registered voters. If there are any voters without a government‐issued ID or cannot afford one, we support providing those IDs free of charge.

There is widespread public support for Voter ID.

In a July 2008 poll conducted by the University of Texas, seventy percent of
Texans supported a voter ID requirement, with 52% strongly supporting the
proposal; 68% of the African Americans polled supported photo ID, and 65%
of the Hispanics/Latinos polled supported photo ID. Polls by Rasmussen (77% support; 2006) and the Texas Conservative Coalition (81% support; December 2008) confirm these findings. In the 2008 Republican Primary, 93% of all Republican voters supported Proposition 1, to require voter ID to cast ballots in elections. Our voters are demanding action on voter ID.

Elections are the bedrock of a representative democracy. Elections free of fraud are imperative to maintain public trust in the integrity of our political system.

Please work with us to get HB 125 to the House Floor.

Sincerely,

Representative Wayne Christian

Representative Warren Chisum

Representative Linda Harper‐Brown

Representative Jodie Laubenberg

Representative Larry Taylor

Representative Dan Flynn

Representative Phil King

Representative Tan Parker

Representative Geanie Morrison

Representative Leo Berman

Representative Bill Callegari

Representative Ken Paxton

Representative Angie Chen‐Button

Representative Allen Fletcher

Representative John Davis

Representative Tim Kleinschmidt

Representative Beverly Woolley

Representative Brandon Creighton

Representative Kelly Hancock

Representative Jim Jackson

Representative Charles “Doc” Anderson

Representative Randy Weber

Representative Ken Legler

Representative Myra Crownover

Representative Dan Gattis

Representative Rick Hardcastle

Representative Mark Shelton

Representative Dwayne Bohac

Representative Beverly Woolley

Representative Todd Hunter