Second world war veteran twice denied absentee ballot under Texas voting law - The Guardian
A 95-year-old second world war veteran twice denied an absentee ballot under a restrictive Texas voting law has attracted support from prominent figures including Beto O’Rourke, a voting rights campaigner and former presidential candidate now running for Texas governor.
Kenneth Thompson, who served in the US army in Europe, told Click2Houston, a Harris county news outlet, he had voted in every election since he was 21 and even remembered paying a 50-cent poll tax in the 1950s.
“I’ve been voting many, many years and I’ve never missed a vote,” he said, adding that he considers voting a duty.
But under a voting restriction bill known as SB1 and passed last August, Thompson could be unable to meet the state’s 31 January voter registration deadline for an absentee ballot.
According to the new law, Thompson is required to submit a social security or driver’s license number that matches state or county records. When Thompson registered to vote decades ago, however, such requirements were not in place.
“He registered to vote in the 1940s and they didn’t require that,” said Delinda Holland, Thompson’s daughter.
Support for Thompson has poured in, including from O’Rourke, who tweeted out Thompson’s story and a call to fight against voting laws introduced by Republicans seeking to restrict voting among communities likely to vote Democratic.
“Now we need to fight for him by taking on [Governor Greg] Abbott’s voter suppression law that is making it harder for Kenneth and millions of other Texans to participate in our democracy,” O’Rourke tweeted.
As Thompson did not meet new requirements under SB1, his application for an absentee ballot was denied twice. He says he was not notified either time by county officials and had to call to confirm his status himself.
“There’s gonna be a lot of people not gonna vote,” said Thompson. “If I hadn’t have called in about mine, people wouldn’t have known.”
On behalf of her dad, she said, Holland tried to call authorities including the office of the Texas secretary of state, seeking to add his license number to his registration file. She discovered there wasn’t a way to do so, which meant he would have to re-register.
“We know it’s a new law, we’re happy to correct [his registration],” said Holland. “He’s a law-abiding citizen. He doesn’t want to miss voting and yet there’s no mechanism to add that driver’s license to your record.”
Thompson said he now checked his mailbox every day, hoping his absentee ballot had arrived. If it did not, he said, he would vote in person.
“I can get out and move around and go to a regular polling place,” he said, “but … lots of people just can’t.”
As 2022 begins, there’s a new year resolution we’d like you to consider. We’d like to invite you to join more than 1.5 million people in 180 countries who have taken the step to support us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.
In 2021, this support sustained investigative work into offshore wealth, spyware, the 6 January insurrection, the corporate actors behind the climate crisis and the abuses of Big Tech. It enabled diligent, fact-checked, authoritative journalism to thrive in an era of falsehood, sensation, hype and breathtaking misinformation and misconception.
In 2022, we’ll be no less active, with the US midterms, the ongoing fight for racial justice, the next round in the struggle against the pandemic and a World Cup.
With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.
Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. While others commoditise information, we seek to democratise it. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact, and become inspired to take meaningful action.
If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our journalism and sustains our future. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – it only takes a minute. Thank you.
source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/29/veteran-denied-absentee-ballot-texas-voting-law-beto-o-rourke
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.