Riddle is just rehashing Mary Denny's HB 1706 bill from the 79th session and extending it to voter registration as well. Voting is already a civic duty too many people ignore. This bill adds another level of bureaucracy at the polls and at the registration level that under trained poll workers and registrars have to muddle through. They have to be aware of what kinds of ID are acceptable and many voters could be disenfranchised simply by not knowing their rights. Some forms of acceptable ID are employer ID card with a photo and student ID photo. How are the poll workers or voter registrars supposed to determine which of those might be fake. And how hard would it be for those truly criminal to create fake student IDs? Then there's the "poll tax" part. Denny had this in her bill too. The bill language says fee but lets call it what it really is - a "poll tax" for a personal ID card. 1) $15 for a person 60 or under 2) $5 for a person 60 or over 30 $20 for a person subject to registration requirements under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (i.e. sex offender) The Secretary of State would collect the monies and there is a procedure to claim you can't afford the fee. Still another hurdle and level of bureaucracy for the working poor to pass in order to vote. No explanation is given on the method of filling out the affidavits to waive the fee. The presumption is that you have to do that at the Secretary of State. Maybe you have to pay your fee first and then apply for a refund. What a waste of time, money and resources fighting a pretty low level crime. We still have not seen any reporting from the Attorney General's office on how rampant voter fraud is. They seem to be spending a lot of money fighting it. But the number of actual prosecuted cases for our voting age population and number of registered voters is pretty small. Denny's bill HB 1706 from the 79th had a revenue loss to the mobility fund of $130,110 per year.

This isn't a poll tax. You should have ID on you when out in public anyway, IMO. We need to make sure the person voting is the person who registered. Whenever I'm voting, everyone shows their ID. It's not the big deal you make it out to be.