When Texas voters complained to the Republican-appointed Director of Elections about having to sign a Similar Name Affidavit before casting a ballot in the November 2013 elections, they were apparently being told that they should
blame Wendy Davis for the hassle of having to sign an affidavit to vote—even though were it not for Davis, many could have been disenfranchised entirely.
That about sums it up. Texas Republicans wrote a bill requiring that a prospective voter's name on an acceptable photo ID exactly match the name that was used when registering to vote. And state Senator Wendy Davis (D, Ft. Worth) proposed an amendment that would allow a voter whose name is not an exact match but is
"substantially similar" to sign an affidavit that the voter who has presented the photo ID is the same person as the one on the official list of registered voters. Then the Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed that bill, and Republican Governor Rick Perry signed it.
Yet when addressing voter complaints, Rick Perry's appointee Keith Ingram chose to deceptively characterize the bill itself:
As you may know, the legislature passed SB-14 in the 82nd legislative session. Prior to the passage of that bill, a voter like yourself or my mother with a maiden name discrepancy between their approved voter identification and the official list of registered voters did not result in having to sign an affidavit. You and my mother were allowed to sign in and vote without any issue. However, SB-14 changed the law in one important respect. An amendment to the bill in the Texas Senate was offered by Senator Wendy Davis from Fort Worth. This amendment required persons whose name was not an exact match but was “substantially similar” to sign an affidavit that they were the same person and be allowed to cast a ballot.
I wish I were shocked that the Texas Republicans, who continually boast about their record controlling this state, would concoct such a craven scheme trying to shift the entire responsibility for this voter ID mess onto the Democratic legislator who proposed a solution.
At the request of the Lone Star Project, J. Gerald Hebert reviewed Ingram's letter. Here's what he concluded (my emphasis):
The contention by the Texas Secretary of State, particularly as expressed in the attached letter sent by SOS Director of Elections Keith Ingram to a Texas voter who had filed a complaint about having to sign an affidavit at the polls, is grossly inaccurate and appears to be an intentional effort to mislead the voter and to improperly criticize Senator Davis. In my view, such an overt misrepresentation of the facts, combined with an obvious attempt by a state official to launch a partisan political attack, rises to the level of an improper use of official resources for partisan political purposes.
Actually, that's the only reasonable conclusion that an informed reader of that letter could reach.
While Texas Republicans have been busy lying to voters, Texas Democrats have been busy working for change.
That sound you heard was Battleground Texas shattering the goal of 48,000 calls in 48 days to help elect Wendy Davis as our 48th governor of Texas. Yep, more than doubled.