Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Legislature Harwell Helps GOP Beat Back Voter Rights
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Republicans showed today just how determined they are to make it hard for old folks and other wild-eyed liberals to vote. House Speaker Beth Harwell came rushing to a subcommittee to make certain lawmakers killed Democratic bills to change the photo ID law. That was after the subcommittee surprised everyone by actually voting 4-3 for one of the bills. It would let voters without photo ID go ahead and cast ballots after having their pictures taken at the polling place. Republicans will have to kill it later in the full committee.
Another bill went down to defeat with Harwell's help today. House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh delayed action on yet another piece of legislation—this one to exempt people over the age of 60—but its time is coming. After the meeting, Harwell repeated the GOP talking point that the photo ID law is all about preventing voter fraud. Those old ladies are trickier than they look.
Update: The same subcommittee met again this afternoon and voted 5-3 to repeal the photo ID law. Whoa, that wasn't in the script. With Republican Bob Ramsey deserting the party and independent Kent Williams also voting with the Democrats, Harwell couldn't stop it. Of course, the full committee will kill the bill next week and put GOP plans to suppress the Democratic vote back on track.
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