Summary

The House committee substitute required all prospective voters to provide either a certified copy of a birth certificate, their passport or their citizneship papers in order to vote.

Many Democrats argued that this would effectively end all voter-registration drives. Furthermore, there are citizens who do not posess any of the required documents. The elderly, people with disabilities, married women, people born to midwives, victims of natural disasters are all at high rish of not having the proper documents.

Rep. King delayed the hearing of the bill on the House floor for a week to work out some of the problems with a bill. As a result, he returned with a substitute that requires potential voters to include their place of birth or naturalization on the voter registration form. The Sec. of State is then required to check the info against all necessary databases. If the Sec. of State can't verify that someone is a citizen, then they would be required to sign a statement verifying their citizenship.

The bill passed the House on a 88-56 vote.

Additional Links

Capitol Annex "HB 626 Is Another Voter Suppression Effort Via Photo IDs, Citizenship Proof" 1/19/07
Half Empty "Voter Suppression Bill Filed in Texas House" 1/19/07