Voters Dodge Republican Bullet - Barely

Real drama on the Senate floor this morning. Senator Troy Fraser brought up H.B. 218, the Voter I.D. bill. This bill starts with the premise that, Somewhere Out There, elections and the Democratic Process Itself are being sabotaged by an "epidemic" (to quote the truly ambitious and absurd Attorney General of Texas) of voter fraud, of apparently limitless varieties: dead voters, double voters, illegal alien voters, illegal Really Alien (Extraterrestrial) voters.

It does not deter Fraser and his fellow Shiites at all that there is almost no evidence whatever of such voter fraud, much less to the extent it would take to actually affect the outcome of elections. When two consultants hired by the Election Assistance Commission - the body created by the HAVA legislation to oversee efforts to improve the integrity and reliability of elections - submitted a preliminary report saying there was little evidence of voter fraud, the Bush Administration acted in predictable fashion: they tried to suppress it, then watered down the final report suggesting the results were inconclusive and further study was needed. More locally, a two-year, million-dollar-plus "task force" on voter fraud led by the aforementioned Abbott has produced a dozen indictments, according to a report by the Lone Star Project.

In any case, when Fraser brought up the bill several Senators were off the floor. After some questions were asked, the Senate voted on whether to bring up the bill under its two-thirds rule. The initial vote was 19-9, meaning the bill could be debated. Almost immediately, however, John Whitmire, who'd been recorded as absent on the vote, challenged it, saying he'd been circulating on the floor and had indicated his vote to Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw. After some heated discussion, Dewhurst offered to allow the vote to be "verified," saying it would make no difference since both Whitmire and Republican Senator Glenn Hegar had returned to the floor. With Democratic Senator Carlos Uresti out sick, the Rs would still win, 20-10. Somehow, though, Uresti voted and on the verification, the motion to suspend failed, 20-11.

Thirteen days to go, and look to the Republicans to feel they got cheated on this one and dirty tricks (like waiting until a Democratic Senator is visiting his doctor or somesuch) are OK. In the balance hang the voting rights of elderly, poor and minority Texans who are less likely to be carrying around the photo IDs required by the bill.