Senatorial Backbone

Today the Democratic Senators in the Oklahoma Legislature showed they do have a backbone, after all. They voted to effectively kill Senate Bill 1150, known as the Voter ID bill.

This is the last term of the session with a 24- 24 split among Democratic and Republican Senators. Under rules negotiated at the beginning of this session last year, a bill must receive 25 votes to be approved. Democratic leader Danny Morgan (Stillwater) did not vote, relieving Lt. Governor Jari Askins of breaking a 24 - 24 tie vote. The measure failed 23 to 24.
The Voter ID Bill is a 21st century version of the infamous 'Poll Tax' that was used to deny blacks the right to vote in the South many decades ago. From Wikipedia:

"A poll tax, in the sense of a discrimination tax which was a pre-condition of the exercise of the right to vote, emerged in some US states in the late 19th century. After the right to vote was extended to all races by the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment, many Southern states enacted poll tax laws which often included a grandfather clause that allowed any adult male whose father or grandfather had voted in a specific year prior to the abolition of slavery to vote without paying thetax. These laws achieved the desired effect of disfranchising African and Native Americans as well as poor whites who immigrated after the year specified."

Sometimes these people make me proud.


"Never separate the lives you lead from the words you speak." -- Paul Wellstone