TDP Action Alert: Stop the GOP's Backdoor Jim Crow Law!

[NoPasaran]

Next week the Elections Committee of the Texas House of Representatives will hear a frightening new bill that is an attempt to introduce a back door Jim Crow.

HB 516 by Betty Brown is in reality a Jim Crow Law. Much like the old days, it seeks to make it harder for minorities to register and vote. It would require people to produce documents to prove their US citizenship. This might sound good, but it is unnecessary- every voter is already required to swear that they are a citizen when they fill out a voter registration card. This is just another GOP attempt at making it hard to register to vote. What if you have lost your birth certificate? What if, like most low income Texans, you don't have a passport? Good luck registering to vote!

The difference between the parties is that the GOP seeks to make it harder to vote while we seek to make it easier. We want the process open to every honest Texan, they want it closed to anyone who won't vote for them. We are the only truly democratic party left!

Please send letters, emails, and call the Elections Committee members and let them know that you oppose HB 516!

Mary Denny, Chair (R) Flower Mound
512-463-0688
[e-mail]

Dwayne Bohac, Vice Chair (R) Houston
512-463-0727
[e-mail]

Todd Smith (R) Bedford
512-463-0522
[e-mail]

Charles Anderson (R) Waco
512-463-0135
[e-mail]

Bryan Hughes (R) Marshall
512-463-0271
[e-mail]

Jesse Jones (D) Dallas
512-463-0664
[e-mail]

Rafael Anchia (D) Dallas
512-463-0746
[e-mail]

[Wright Patman]

1. I have been predicting this for years

Nonwhite Texans will be in the majority within a decade or two.

Fortunately for the GOP, so far the Mexicans are either not voting at all (as they have no tradition of their votes mattering at all in their home country) or giving about a third of it to the GOP.

That's 20 percentage points better than the African-Americans from a GOP perspective. I said during the Ohio disenfranchisement that the blacks of America will have to take to the streets again if they ever want to have back the unrestricted right to vote. The GOP gave them 35 years to vote the "right" way. The blacks didn't switch sides in sufficient numbers and so now they are being systematically disenfranchised again.

"Democracy" (which has never really existed anyhow except on the level of a Greek city-state) is only given lip service now in Texas. Within 20 years, no one will be able to claim there is anything close to a functioning representative government in this state. It will be a "caudillo" system, only the "caudillos" will be old white guys.

[AuntiBush]

2. Why do you think the Oaf

is so slow, if not void of even wanting to push for legitimacy for the illegal immigrant issue. I mean, come on.

[Ian David]

3. Should we be doing Passport-Registration Drives in the meantime?

Maybe we should go into minority areas and help them obtain the proper documentation.

[CitySky]

5. not a bad idea if this passes

cut em off at the pass.

But it would be FAR better not to see this new hurdle passed into law.

[gmoses]

4. it hurts

to see all this talk about the long, predictable complicity of Democrat inaction. The old battle between bigots and voters of color is one kind of aggravation, but the equally old battle between white moderates and their apathy on questions of voters rights is something the Democratic party needs to change today. I mean this afternoon. For the prediction to come true that "the blacks" will have to agitate again for change, then "the blacks" will have to find themselves friendless, even among Democrats. So I not only hope you're wrong, but I have a suggestion (in addition to fighting the bad bill mentioned above) about where changing history can begin right now, before "the blacks" are left standing at the altar of voting rights AGAIN:

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/

[StephanieRocks]

6. immigration

Like my hero Rodney King said, "Can't we just all get along???"

Kevin

[alarimer]

7. Are there really that many noncitizens trying to vote??

This sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me. Not to mention racist. What next, the poll tax?? Or maybe you should only be allowed to vote if your great-great grandfather could vote. Completelt asinine.

Slightly off-topic, I wa reading Caro's biography of LBJ. In deep south Texas, they used to outright buy votes from Mexican-Americans. The going rate was five dollars and a shot of tequila.

[sonias]

8. Houston DUers you have another problem with George Hammerlein

According to Dos Centavos Blog your registrar is for this. Pick up those phones and pens and let him hear from you.

http://dos-centavos.blogspot.com/2005/03/democracy-under-attack-by-republicans.html
George Hammerlein, director of voter registration in Harris County, which has about 1.8 million voters, said he supports it. Let's call for his resignation!

"We think voters have a certain responsibility along with the right to vote," Hammerlein said. "It provides integrity and gives people confidence in the system." So does a paper trail! BABOSO!


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Sonia