Mary Denny does not give up

Dammit. There's a lot of BS that goes on at the end of these legislative sessions, and a bad bill is never truly dead if it's being pushed by a member of the majority party. Case in point: Mary Denny's evil voter ID bill is still breathing.

As the clock approached 9 p.m., the House cut off debate on the measure. Senate Bill 89, carrying the ID amendment by Rep. Mary Denny, R-Aubrey, passed 83-59.

The amendment would require voters under age 85 to show picture identification or two forms of nonpicture identification at their polling place on Election Day. A voter without proper identification could cast a provisional ballot that could be counted later.

The House attached the requirement to SB 89, which adds election officials to the list of people who can access electronically readable information on a driver's license.

Legislative rules allow the legislation's author, Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, to accept changes made by the House and send the measure to the governor if there is support from a majority of senators. Averitt said late Tuesday that he is unsure whether he wants to do that or he has the votes to do so.

"I'm backing up," he said. "Apparently there was more debate on it than I realized."

According to a staffer I spoke to in Sen. Mario Gallegos' office today, Sen. Averitt has until Saturday to decide what to do, and that may include naming a conference committee, which would have to finishe its work by Sunday. I know I've got at least a couple of readers in the Waco area, so this would be a fine time for y'all to give Sen. Averitt a ring and ask him to leave Denny's amendment out.

There's a little bit more detail in the Kilgore News Herald, and not much else that I can find. Bluebonnet from PinkDome also has some more. I just hope those eleven Senators who stopped this earlier can do it again.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 26, 2005 to That's our Lege | TrackBack