Texas' voter ID motives questioned in two areas

In the state legislature...

More than a week ago, Texas Senate Democrats put Texas Secretary of State Nandita Berry on notice: They wanted her office to get more mobile units on Texas streets to give voters without an acceptable photo ID a chance to get one before November's election.

One week later, there's been no movement to do so, says state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin.

The problem, he says, is that there are not one but two state agencies in charge of putting more mobile units out in the community. The Secretary of State's office (SOS), which includes voter registration, has to coordinate where the mobile units will go. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) actually owns the mobile units which can issue the new Texas election identification certificates, or EICs.

After trying to get the two entities to agree on how to do it — and to do it quickly — Watson said late Tuesday that it "appears to me it is a breakdown on both ends."

Ah, the Department of Public Safety. Their scheme is revealed in the courthouse, where the state's photo ID legislation is on trial.

Emails from a Department of Public Safety official raised questions Tuesday in federal court about the sincerity of the agency's voter qualification efforts.

"Zero's a good number," Tony Rodriguez, a senior DPS manager wrote in a email presented as evidence in the ongoing voter ID trial. Rodriguez was responding to a subordinate's report that no election identification certificates had been issued the day before at a DPS location.

The rest is behind a paywall, but there's more context for it at the Brennan Center's liveblog.  Note that this courtroom drama -- which included testimony from Sen. Wendy Davis -- came last Friday morning, and the Corpus Christi Caller-Time's story (first linked; apparently the only news coverage, if you can believe Google) appeared last night.

What an appalling lapse on the part of the Texas media.  To be even-handed, there was some other breaking news late last Friday that must have simply overwhelmed our tired corporate news gatherers.  All the way into Thursday.

The Texas Secretary of State, as we all know by now, is Mrs. Michael Berry.  So when you hear it said over and over again that Texas is a non-voting state, you also need to understand that this is no accident on the part of Texas Republicans.  That is exactly the way they want it.

It's the only way they can stay in power.

Here's my opportunity to repeat myself: do what you have to do in order to make sure you can vote in the next few weeks, and do it now.  And then help your family, friends, and neighbors do so.

Texas Leftist has more.  Update: And Charles climbed over the firewall and got more of the Caller-Times story.   It's worth reading just for DPS official Rodriguez' defense of his 'zero is a good number' comments as sarcasm.

Fumbles and personal fouls

-- The Ray Rice domestic violence affair melted down yesterday.  Rice's two-game suspension by the NFL for cold-cocking his fiance'/now wife Janay turned into an indefinite one -- and the termination of his contract by the Baltimore Ravens -- after elevator video surfaced of the blow he struck her.

Previously the team's players, coaches, and front office had voiced support for what a great guy Rice was.  That all changed in a matter of a few hours.  As the story developed, Fox's morning morons revealed they skipped their corporate sensitivity trainings.  They probably won't lose their jobs.  *Update: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell might lose his, though.  And probably should.

I'm sure there's no connection -- none whatsoever -- between this and the whole "War on Women" being waged by the GOP.  No coverup or anything.  The fact that Bob McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans, and Drayton McLane, the previous owner of the Houston Astros, are large benefactors to Greg Abbott is nothing more than a coincidence.

-- Speaking of misogyny... if you're the kind of person that feels like they might be voting this year, feels kinda like they might want to support the Democratic nominee for governor, Wendy Davis, but finds yourself undecided for any variety of reasons... read the comments on this story and see if that helps you make up your mind.  Maybe you're already planning on voting for her, and were thinking you might try to help her campaign in some way, if you found time.  Read the comments again, and see if they provide some motivation.

Some people seem to have a problem with her book tour.  Not just whiny Greg Abbott.

-- David Alameel is polling twenty-one points behind John Cornyn.  Carry on.

-- On a more upbeat note regarding Democrats and other candidates on the ballot in the Dallas area, see this handy Dallas Voters Guide, courtesy of the DMN.  They have the statewides as well as the locals.

-- The Harris County Green Party is holding a candidate forum on Monday, September 22.  State and local candidates will meet and greet voters and the media, give remarks, and be available for Q&A.  Some statewide candidates will also be available via Skype.  And in October, Texas Agriculture Commission candidate Kenneth Kendrick and Texas Railroad Commission candidate Martina Salinas will return to Houston for a joint fundraiser.