Stage Six: Comment on a colleague’s work #1 | My Commentary: Voter ID Laws - The Troubles are There

Blog Stage Six

Stage Six: Comment on a colleague’s work #1

In Mrs. Ileana Kraus’ “Voter ID Laws – The Troubles are There” original editorial, Ms. Kraus claims that it would have been sensible to take care of people who don’t possess IDs before the voter law was passed. I absolutely concur with the said statement. The voter ID law is overall a big hassle.

This voter ID law calls for voters to possess at least one out of seven legal photo IDs. The problem is the hassle of voting is very meticulous – if there’s even one tweak in the placement of middle name’s initial, you would have to confirm this through legal documentation. It’s not worth time and effort to vote if such a small issue of name initial placement proves to be the biggest hindrance in voting for a minute or two. I don’t agree with people who claim that the new voter ID laws don’t cause any change to votes on Election Day. There are many reasons why this statement is invalid besides the fact that they have to show identification upon voting.

Though it makes logical sense for a person to be required to possess a form of identification to vote, that is not the underlying problem. Ms. Kraus maintains that the problem is not that people don’t desire ownership of an ID, but rather not all people have one. She goes on to say that after the law was passed, DPS made an effort to extend office hours so people could apply easier for IDs.

The bottom line is they extended hours only after the laws were passed. Ms. Kraus argues that it would have made more logical sense to consider people without an ID before the bill was signed and placed into effect. In the long run, requiring voters to have an ID to vote limits their options if they don’t meet the requirements of the law. I couldn’t agree more with her sentiment about requiring all citizens to have one of seven forms of identification upon becoming a citizen of Texas. It definitely would have averted any frustrations on Election Day.

She also lists and reveals more obvious problems about post-election day. Lastly, she asserts that “the problem lies not in the law itself, but in the way it was enacted.” She reasons, “If a law had been passed first, that Texans of the age of 18 to have an ID, there wouldn’t have been many reasons to be against the law of voter IDs.” Such a brilliant deduction, I’m on par with the logic there – well said Ms. Kraus!