COMMENTARY: W. GARDNER SELBY
When is a typo like a veto? When it thwarts a vote
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ridiculously, thousands of Texans might have been denied voter registration cards because of typos by government clerks.
So a Houston legislator won approval this year of a proposal directing the Texas secretary of state's office to police such glitches.
 Harry Cabluck/ASSOCIATED PRESS Rick Perry vetoed proposal to police errors. [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
Democratic Rep. Scott Hochberg even fielded congratulations from the agency's top lawyer.
But that moment, which the agency deems no more than a passing gesture, took place before Gov. Rick Perry vetoed Hochberg's House Bill 1457, saying the change might promote fraud.
The veto leaves an untold number of Texans at risk of not landing a registration card because a clerk handling an application mistypes a name, driver's license number or other information.
Since 2006, the state has checked the typed information against state records, in accord with federal law. Counties are told to square things with spurned applicants who could field letters stating they're still free to vote if they bring proof of identity.
The state doesn't know how many applications get resolved.
And last year, about 70,000 applications didn't match up; a sampling of mismatches in Harris, Dallas and Bexar counties by Hochberg's office found many errors caused by digits being off on driver's license numbers and dates of birth.
Politically, Perry's veto seems to be a ticking bomb for foes who could claim it shows he cares little about protecting voting rights.
Conversely, Perry could burnish his standing among voters discomfited by Democrats derailing a mandate that voters present photo IDs at the polls; Perry could pitch himself as the state's No. 1 watchdog for Texans fearless of getting typo'd.
Maybe the standoff could have been dodged by communication during the legislative session.
Hochberg said that nobody from Perry's office shared misgivings before the proposal advanced, though Perry's office said there was back-and-forth between aides. The governor's office didn't dispute that Perry's legislative director told Hochberg he'd recommend that Perry not veto anything that gubernatorial aides hadn't flagged in conversations with legislators.
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle stood by Perry's veto message stating the responsibility for correcting mistakes should lie with county officials who keep registration applications.
Perry said, "A misspelled name or incorrect date of birth on a voter registration application is a strong indication that the application was filled out by someone other than the rightful voter."
Hochberg called that fret "just crazy. There aren't 70,000 (residents) falsely registering and screwing up a letter on their application. You shouldn't lose your right due to a typo by a government clerk."
wgselby@statesman.com; 445-3644
