The Texas Tribune reports that the Department of Public Safety has begun offering free Voter IDs on Saturdays at most of their locations, including all the Harris County offices.
As some may recall, back in June, when the Supreme Court opened the floodgates of Jim Crow, the Department of Public Safety announced that they would immediately begin offering free identifications to be used only for voting.
The rules of the Voter ID Act are somewhat straight forward. The identification possessed by voters must be issued by the Government, contain a photograph and bear an address that matches your voter registration. Including the new “voter IDs” created, the only other forms of valid identification which may be presented are Driver’s Licenses, Passports and Concealed Carry Permits. Student IDs are not sufficient, and students are excluded if they registered to vote at their college while maintaining a Driver’s License address at their parent’s residence. Accordingly, the students must pay the poll tax administrative fee to maintain the integrity of their voting status.
The DPS announcement is important, as it eases the burden faced by the most marginalized by this discriminatory piece of legislation. The offices will only be open from 10AM-2PM every Saturday from today to November 2nd (right before the Constitutional Amendment/Municipal elections).