Rick Hasen alerted me to this Houston Chronicle piece from the other day, about legislation in Texas that would — in the interest of preventing non-existent “voter fraud” — require that registered voters present photo IDs proving their citizenship before voting.
The measure is championed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) and GOP lawmakers in Austin, who are using the same arguments heard in other states that have considered adding hurdles to participating in elections. Dewhurst has been relying on Mike Baselice, a prominent Republican pollster in Texas, who’s been helping bolster the party’s strategy.
Baselice conducted a poll the first week in April for an anonymous client on another subject. He says he threw the voter ID question in on his own, because it was a hot topic at the time. He provided the results to Republicans, who are now using it to support their cause.
The poll found 95 percent of Republicans, 91 percent of independents and 87 percent of Democrats support using photo IDs.
Royal Masset, the former political director of the Republican Party of Texas, who trained Baselice, says it is easy to elicit that kind of response to a poll question.
Among Republicans it is an “article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,” Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote. (emphasis added)
And that, my friends, is what the “voter fraud” game is all about.