I want to make a final brief point about the uselessness of voter registration cards in the great state of Texas.
As I noted already, the polling place judges don’t ask to see them when we vote. What’s more, when we vote in primary elections, we aren’t identified either as Democrat or Republican when we walk into the polling place. We show the polling judge our photo identification; that’s good enough!
We select the party primary where we intend to vote the moment we walk into the balloting station. Poll judges used to stamp my card “Democrat” or “Republican,” depending on the primary I chose; they haven’t done so in years. Oh, by the way, I voted in GOP primaries often when we lived in the Texas Panhandle because I wanted to have a voice in key local races, which invariably involved only the Republican Party primary.
The open primary system we have in Texas, therefore, renders voter registration cards unnecessary.
So, why do we have ’em? I am at a loss to explain why.
Texas can save a bundle of cash every other year by dispensing with printing voter registration cards. Surely it costs the state, oh, a million or two bucks to print these things out.
When we register to vote with the county clerk’s office, our name and address are entered into a computer system. It is kept in the data base and then accessed on primary or general election day.
Bingo! No need for the registration card.