Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Texas fights to make it harder to vote

The State of Texas will do everything it can to make it harder for residents to register to vote. And by now it should be obvious, even to the most dyed-in-the-wool Trumpkin that these efforts are designed to restrict the number of Texans who are able to exercise their right to vote.

The latest salvo is a ruling from US District Judge Orlando Garcia who told the state it had 45 days to create an online system to allow folks to register to vote when renewing their driver's license online. The current system directs people to the Secretary of State's website and instructs them to print out an application and mail it to their local county clerk's office. Judge Garcia said that system is not in compliance with federal law.

It is not known what argument Attorney General Ken Paxton will make in support of the state's current system - other than telling the judge that the only way the GOP will continue to dominate state electoral politics is to keep the blacks and browns from voting as much.

And, when given the opportunity to propose a fix, state officials looked at each other and just shrugged their shoulders.

The demographics of this state are changing rapidly and the old, white power structure knows that the only way for them to maintain their power in this state is to do everything in their power to restrict the right to vote. And that's what this is all about. It has nothing to do with the Republican bogey-man of voter fraud. It's all about manipulating the system in such a way so that the minority exercise more electoral power than the majority.

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