Voter ID Law

As a person who isn’t registered to vote I never thought too much about a requirement of having a valid photo ID to be able to vote. After reading this article on CNN, I began to understand why people wouldn’t want this valid photo ID law passed. It would create a problem with the people who live in rural areas of Texas that takes a couple hours to get to a place where you can get a valid photo ID, or a passport or some kind of proper identification to allow you to vote. No one wants to drive that far for something that little. It would also hurt the person who don’t drive and doesn’t require a driver’s license or someone who doesn’t have the money to get a Texas ID, or they don’t have anybody to take them to their local driver’s license station to obtain one. People also think it would bring discrimination with the new law. This law wouldn’t take in consideration by the color of your skin or your ethnicity. It would affect everyone that doesn’t have the proper identification to be able to vote or the means to obtain one. In this article on CNN statistics show that about 600,000 registered voters lack the state issued driver’s license or identification card. This law wouldn’t cut down on fraud, it would create problems for the people who have issues obtaining a proper identification card, or possibly someone who has physical or mental disabilities and couldn’t get one. I’m sure someone with a physical disability is still in the right frame of mind to vote. It’s just another way to take our hard earned money out of our pockets and use it one something that is irrelevant.

Crisis in student voting

After reading this article, I believe that this author has gotten the student body attention about the crisis in student voting. The author states that a little over nine thousand students voted from a university that generally enrolls fifty thousand students a year. That’s relatively higher than the two primary republican turnouts. However in certain precincts that are heavily dominated with university student did not vote and the actual number of students that voted is closer to two thousand. The author suggests that maybe they should change their election days so it wouldn’t conflict with other election days. Student voting is an important thing for the university and the future of politics it helps student learn about elections and voting and help them vote in the future for more important elections than student government. This article was published in March of 2010 by Michael Hurta a senior editor with The Burnt Orange Report

State and Local goverment curb unfunded mandates

I came across this article; it’s a little old but very interesting published by Texas Tribune. It’s talking about state and local government looking for other ways to ease budget costs on government, cities, school districts and community colleges. Lawmakers are trying to ease the unfunded mandates the states impose on them. Counties are stuck with a lot of the burden. They are required to pay for attorneys for criminals who can’t afford one. They are also required to pay for elections and keep up jail standards. A representative wants to amend the Texas Constitution to block the state from ordering new mandates without providing the money to pay for them. It’s a very interesting article to read.