MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry has a regular feature where she reads an open letter she's sent to a politician. This week's letter went to Texas Governor Rick Perry. According to Ms. Harris-Perry, Governor Perry enacted the Texas voting rights law to suppress the female vote and to help Attorney General Greg Abbott succeed him as governor.
There are three distinct issues Melissa Harris-Perry covers in her letter: first, whether there is indeed voter fraud in Texas; second, is it tough for a married woman who has changed her name to get new I.D. in Texas; and third, whether the voter I.D. law was enacted to suppress female voters who would vote for Abbott's opponent. Here's Perry:
(...) who cares about constitutional rights when you're trying to rig -- I mean run elections in Texas? That's my question for the recipient of this week's letter.
Dear Texas Governor Rick Perry, it's me, Melissa. We are getting to be regular pen pals. I mean I hate to be a pest, but it seems my earlier letters didn't sink in. You remember the one in June about extending the Texas legislative session 30 days in order to push your anti-abortion agenda? Or maybe the one about watching out for the Wendy Davis express, a gubernatorial campaign fueled by the women of the Lone Star State? But maybe you did get that one, because your recent actions show that you don't want those women at the polls.
It seems you started hatching a plan back in June when the Supreme Court ruled Section 4 of the voting rights act unconstitutional. This meant your state no longer has to get changed to voting laws be cleared by the federal government. Just a few hours after the ruling, Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbott declared that the Texas voter I.D. Law would take effect immediately. And it's law that you have supported, lauding its necessity to combat voter impersonation and say Texas has a responsibility to ensure elections are fair, beyond reproach and accurately reflect the will of the voters. Really, Governor? Because less than five -- five voting impersonation complaints were filed with the Texas attorney general's office for 2008 and 2010 elections in which more than 13 million people voted.
It's been much more than five. An article published last month by Polifact pointed to two different sources to get information regarding claims of voter fraud, The State Attorney General's records show that from August 2002 through September 2012, the office received 616 allegations of election-code violations and recorded 78 election-code prosecutions. And in 2012, the News21 investigative project headquartered at Arizona State University’s journalism school compiled a database that showed 104 Texas cases of alleged election fraud among 2,068 nationwide since 2000. Harris-Perry continued:
(...) Governor, do you know how hard it is your to get your name changed on legal documents when you get married? Oh, wait. Probably not, since you're a man who doesn't have to worry about such things. But a recent study by "The Brennan Center for Justice" found that a third of all women have citizenship documents that do not match their current legal name. That includes Texas District Court Judge Sandra Watts who found that the I.D. she's been using to vote for the last 52 years was deemed insufficient. On top of that between 600 to 800 thousand registered Texas voters do not have the necessary government I.D. to vote. But before a voter can get the I.D. they have to have for their document to confirm their identity and the cheapest document is a birth certificate at $22. That is not pocket change. And 81 of your 254 counties don't even have a DMV office so residents have to drive 250 miles to get to the closest location. So, Governor, the question has to be asked -- are you protecting the will of the voters or your party's political interests? Now, you know since Attorney General Greg Abbott, the same one who couldn't wait to enact that voter I.D. Law, is the one running against Wendy Davis. But the rest of us are not going to sit by idly let your attorney general become the governor of the great state of suppression. That's why the nation's attorney general is coming for that law. He filed suit under section two of the voting rights act, arguing that your voter I.D. Law is discriminatory.
Those counties without a DMV office Ms. Harris-Perry spoke of are in the rural areas of Texas, which happen to be the most conservative parts of the state. So if the women's vote is being suppressed in those areas, as she says, those voters are likely to be Abbott voters.
