Wade Watch: Voter ID bill sole aim is to be restrictive

I got a chance to listen to Tom Wade this morning on 1090 AM's Wake up Laredo show which airs Monday through Friday at 7am. First of all, let me say thanks to Tom for consistently promoting the local blogs on the air. He has done this time and again and continues to urge his listeners to visit not only his own website, WakeupLaredo.com, but the rest of Laredo's blogs as well. Having said that, my comments today are about a particularly contentious issue which Wade addressed during the last part of his show.

It was then, that Wade waded into the always controversial issue of Texas's voter ID bill. Having recently passed in the state senate, the bill is coming up for a vote in the Texas house as early as today. It will require any person who wishes to vote in Texas to first provide a photo ID of themselves. Admittedly, Laredoans are already asked to provide such identification but apparently it's not done throughout the state. Personally, I feel that the process used locally helps to ensure the integrity of the voting process. But let's not pretend this legislation will not have an overall restrictive effect on Texas voters.

State representative Richard Raymond again spoke out against the proposed legislation. According to today's Laredo Morning Times, Raymond stated the following:

 "U.S. and Texas elections have no voter fraud problems. Rather, the problem is nearly half of Texans do not vote, he said. The Republican Party has done throughout history everything they can to make it harder to vote,” he said. Now that minorities are the majority in the state, the only thing they can figure is, ‘We’re about to get outnumbered, so let’s make it harder for them to vote. ”

Wade blasted comments these comments as  "one of the stupidest thing's I've heard". Of course, Wade immediately made it clear that he likes Raymond so at least we know it's not a personal thing. For the record, this is not the first time Raymond has protested against this legislation. In May of 2009, Raymond spoke eloquently against the same bill which failed to pass at that time.