| May 1, 2009 · Earlier this week, the House Republican Caucus started collecting signatures on a letter affirming four basic principals that state GOP lawmakers would like to see in any voter ID bill. Those tenets, including one to have a new law in place for the 2010 elections, are deal breakers for Democrats.
Crosbyton Democrat Joe Heflin has been working with the House Elections committee to draft a Voter ID bill that Democrats would actually vote for. Until now, they thought they had something that could pass with bi-partisan support. He says, “we’ve lost all the good hours and hours and hours on meetings that we’ve had with people. Committee hearings are basically may be gone because we’ve got this agenda out there.”
Now, House Republicans are putting pressure on Elections Committee Chair, Euless Republican Todd Smith, to strip any Democratic concessions. Smith says that goes against the very nature of his negotiations. “If we want to pass a bill then we have to put things in the bill that will attract the marginal votes that are necessary to pass the bill. It’s pretty simple,” says Smith.
The House bill on Voter ID is in an interesting position. The Republican version of the bill has the votes to get out of committee, but probably not enough to pass on the House floor. The compromise has enough votes to pass the House, but can’t get out of committee. And Smith isn’t really interested in bringing the Republican version to the floor. “I don’t want to vote a bill onto the floor where we have every reason to believe before it gets there that it does not have the votes to pass. I don’t see the purpose in that,” says Smith. Nevertheless, he plans to bring it up for a committee vote anyway, even if that means a “no” vote. |
