Former House Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX) always enjoyed acting on the national stage when he served as Speaker back in the 1980s before he was forced to resign under a swirling cloud of ethical charges. It looks like he still enjoys acting. The 90-year old, who apparently no longer drives, showed up at the Department of Public Safety on Saturday to obtain a state-issued voter ID card so he could vote in Tuesday's election. Wright showed up with a driver's license that had expired several years ago and a faculty ID card issued by a private university, Texas Christian University. “Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID,” Wright told the Fort Worth Star-Telgram. “I earnestly hope these unduly stringent requirements on voters won’t dramatically reduce the number of people who vote,” Wright said. “I think they will reduce the number to some extent.” Wright goes on in the interview to compare the state's Voter ID law to the old poll tax law he says he fought to repeal during the civil rights movement. He will return to the license branch today with his birth certificate so he can receive a state ID.
Obviously, this was staged for effect to try to make it appear that a former lawmaker was having trouble voting. The article goes on to explain that even people lacking proper ID are allowed to cast provisional votes as long as they obtain the proper identification within a week following the election. Area folks may recall how the late U.S. Rep. Julia Carson showed up at the first election following the enactment of Indiana's Voter ID law without proper identification as a staged stunt to make it appear that the law would even prevent a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives from voting. Reporters were prompted to be on hand to witness it playing out. People always complaining about the Voter ID law being so burdensome never seem to have a problem producing the required identification to apply for government benefits, get a driver's license or passport, conduct banking transactions, board a plane, etc. It's only when they show up at a polling place to vote that it suddenly becomes an overly burdensome requirement. The Obama Justice Department has been doing everything conceivable to block enforcement of Voter ID laws in states throughout the South, claiming they are only designed to prevent minorities from voting despite the overwhelming evidence that laws like Indiana's Voter ID law have had absolutely no impact on minority voting.
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