- UTRGV Recognized By ED As Among Schools ‘Doing The Most To Lift Students Up’
- Halloween is a Tradition That Dates Back Many Years
- Esteban Cabrera – December 26, 1945 – October 11, 2024
- Ready for District
- Harlingen Opens First Pump Track in South Texas
- ACE Flag Football
- La Feria ISD Hires Chief of Police for District
- Three Ways To Protect Migratory Birds This Fall
- Goodwill and the RGV Vipers Team Up for a Skills Camp
- Santa Rosa ISD Offers Law Enforcement Cadet Program
I.D. Needed for Record Number of Texans Registered to Vote
- Updated: November 7, 2014
Texas has a record 14 million people registered to vote this year, and efforts at getting them to the polls with the proper I.D. continue with the election now just one week away. Photo: Matt Turner/Flickr.
by John Michaelson/TNS
AUSTIN, Texas – With the midterm election one week away, Texans are being urged to get out and vote – but they are also being reminded they will need appropriate identification in the wake of the state’s new voter I.D. law.
After numerous twists and turns in the legal battle over the need for a photo I.D., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week the Texas I.D. requirement will stand for this election.
Albert Morales, project coordinator with the Advocacy Alliance Center of Texas (AACT), says voters have a number of legally-issued I.D. options to choose from.
“They have to present a valid Texas I.D.,” he says. “Different forms of I.D. are acceptable: a Texas concealed handgun license, also a military-issued I.D. and a U.S. passport also will work with that.”
Voters can also present a state-issued driver’s license, personal identification card or election identification certificate, or a U.S. citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph.
A record 14 million Texans are registered to vote this year, but Morales says the state’s voter turnout rate is usually among the worst in the nation, and more work needs to be done right up until Election Day to get voters to the polls.
“We’re hosting phone banks in order to call people and remind them in a non-partisan way to get out to vote,” he says. “We’re providing them with information as far as their nearest polling location and the hours that the polls are open.”
In the 2012 election, only half of the eligible voters in Texas turned out to cast a ballot. In 2010 those numbers were down to one in three.
