Opinion

Photo ID not that easy to obtain

When I was 7 years old, the 19th Amendment granting the right to vote for women was ratified, and I availed myself of that right and privilege as soon as I turned 21 in 1934. Over the years, I have not only participated in the electoral process by voting in almost all elections, I have also registered voters, taken voters to the polls, conducted voter education programs, and worked to ensure that all have the right to vote and have their vote counted.

With my history of civic engagement, I am especially disappointed that my vote will not be counted in San Antonio’s mayoral runoff election.

I wanted to vote. I intended to vote. I applied for a ballot by mail, at age 101, my favorite manner of voting nowadays. But a while after applying for my mail ballot, I moved from one assisted living facility to another, not knowing that the Post Office does not forward mail ballots.

With no mail ballot, I attempted to vote early in person. I do not possess a government-issued photo ID, and I have had none issued since I stopped driving when I was in my early 80s, over 20 years ago. One of the benefits of mail ballot is that a voter is not required to provide such a document.

But on Monday of this week, I was driven to a Texas Department of Public Safety office where I wanted to obtain a “Proof of Identity.” I did not have a Texas Driver’s License issued within two years of expiration. No Passport. No unexpired U.S. military photo ID. Nor did I have an “advance parole document with photo.” Sorry, but I never did time in the penitentiary, so I don’t have that document. Had I had just one of these documents, I could obtain my “Proof of Identity” and be somebody.

Since I didn’t have one of the primary identification documents, I could produce either two documents from the secondary identification documents list or one from the secondary list plus two from the supporting identification documents. Sorry, but I have never seen my birth certificate, if, indeed, one was issued. I was born in Luxor, a very tiny unincorporated coal village in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and maybe they recorded my birth, but I don’t have a copy. Nor was I born abroad, and I don’t possess a certified copy of a court order indicating a change of name.

I do have some supporting identification documents like my Medicare and Social Security cards and the voter registration card at the old address, but without a secondary identification document, I am simply out of luck. Even if I had a concealed handgun permit or a pilot’s license, lacking a certified birth certificate makes it impossible to get the photo ID, thereby making it impossible for me to vote early in-person or on Election Day. I was able to vote a provisional ballot, good only if I, within 72 hours, present myself at the Elections Office with documents impossible for me to obtain.

With travel time included, my visits to the DPS office and the early voting site took five hours without my being successful in voting. I must say that the clerks at both locations could not have been nicer, and they afforded me the most professional respect possible. They did not write the regulations, and they declared my situation was the strangest set of circumstances they had encountered. But my vote won’t count.

But what about you who read these words? Your vote will count, but only if you show up. It won’t take you five hours, more like five minutes. I hope you will go to the polls and cast the vote I am being denied. Vote for those of us who cannot.

Mary Lou Miller lives in San Antonio and was assisted by Bob Comeaux in writing this comment.