Eugene Fischer

Category: Texas

Voting in Texas

On Election Day I posted the Facebook status,

For the record, voting in Iowa feels like a massively more civilized activity than voting in Texas does. The disenfranchisement efforts here are palpable.

To expand on that: Iowa had same-day voting registration, paper ballots that you sealed yourself, and incredibly helpful election officials that exuded concern for protecting everyone’s franchise. In contrast, when I moved back to Texas I rushed to register before the October 6 deadline. I assumed that since I had lived in Texas for all but the previous 3 years of my life and been a Texas voter before, this would be a straightforward process. It wasn’t. It took me two days of driving back and forth from Pflugerville, four forms of ID, and a document from the county tax assessor’s office to get my Texas ID and voter registration. It was important to do those at the same time, because if there are any discrepancies between the two–such as the presence of a middle name on one but not the other–you will not be allowed to vote normally on election day. You will be able to, should you be willing to take the time, fill out an affidavit and a provisional ballot, which may or may not end up being counted. And even if everything is in order, you will be voting electronically, with all the potential for abuse that brings.

I was able to get my Texas ID and register in only two days because I’m childless and self-employed and was able to take as much time jumping through bureaucratic hoops as was required. Also, I had four forms of identification. But what if my time was more limited, or I had a shorter history as a voter in this state? I might not have managed to register in time at all. And the presence of such irritating barriers might have stopped me from caring enough to try.

That effect is exactly the reason the barriers are there: to stop minorities, the poor, anyone who is demographically unlikely to support the Republican party from voting. And this year it was remarkably effective. Texas had a voter turnout rate of only 28.5%, the lowest in the entire country. Relatedly, the conservative candidates rolled to easy victories. Iowa’s a swing state and Texas isn’t. Voting in Iowa feels like a celebrated act of civic responsibility. Voting in Texas feels like being patted down by the TSA.

In Which I Boogie Back to Texas

I just submitted a rental application for an apartment, so this seems as good a time as any to announce that I’m moving back to Texas.

My life in Iowa has been wonderful in many ways, but after three Midwestern years I’m ready to resume real city living. I spent the last semester traveling all over the country looking for where I might want to relocate. I fell in love with Seattle, spent several glorious days in Portland, and had my eyes opened to the excitement of burgeoning Durham. And had you asked me a few years ago, I would have placed the odds of my ever living in Texas again at near-zero. But, three years later, I’ve realized that proximity to family is a much bigger motivator than I’d realized. Than I’d ever been in a position before to discover. So I’m splitting the difference between novelty and familiarity by moving to Austin, a city in which I’ve never lived, but where I have friends and will be an easy drive from my parents in San Antonio. All the other places I want to be will wait for me. I have unfinished business in the Lone Star State.

Another Glorious Moment in Texas Political History

One nice thing about having an entire ascendant political class utterly divorced from pragmatism or reality is that, since the people involved do still have to live in the real world, their own efforts occasionally backfire in hilarious ways. My favorite one of these is probably still the time that Texas, in its zeal to ban gay marriage, overshot the mark and accidentally amended the state constitution in a way that techincally banned all marriage. But now there’s a new contender.

Texas, like many other conservative-controlled states, has passed strict Voter ID laws in an effort to disenfranchise the poor, minorities, and women. In Texas you must now be able to show a current government ID whose name “substantially matches” that on the voter registry to be able to vote. This is actually somewhat weaker than the version of the law pushed for by Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, who wanted an exact match to be required. But State Senator Wendy Davis, Democrat and noted superhero, pointed out that women who had gotten married and changed their name would frequently be unable to vote, and got the law changed so that if the names were similar but not identical you could still vote providing you signed an affidavit.

In an ironic twist, Greg Abbott turned out to be registered to vote under that name, but arrived at his polling place to discover that his driver’s license reads “Greg Wayne Abbott.” So under his preferred legislation, he would have been unable to vote at all. Which is especially interesting given that he’s the presumptive Republican candidate to replace Rick Perry as Governor. And his presumptive opponent? Wendy Davis, the woman who preserved his franchise in 2013.

You’ve got a year to improve the optics on that one, Greg.

Wendy Davis and DOMA

I’m still too tired from staying up until 3:30 am last night watching Christopher Dido‘s livestream from the rotunda of the Texas Capitol to do any kind of long writeup, but last night was incredible. Senator Wendy Davis staged a 13 hour filibuster to stall a bill that would close almost all of Texas’s abortion providers. With a little over an hour to go before the special legislative session expired, the GOP used bullshit strongarm tactics to make her shut up, at which point the rest of the democratic senators began a campaign of de-facto filibustering via parliamentary inquiry. Kirk Watson managed to make a question about obvious “germane-ness” of Roe v. Wade to an abortion bill (something the GOP had challenged to make Wendy stop) last about ten minutes. Leticia Van de Putte, who had left her father’s funeral to be there, brought down the house when, after Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst continually refused to recognize her, she asked, “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues?” Finally, with about thirteen minutes to go before midnight, Dewhurst stopped even pretending to listen to the senators and tried to force a vote through. At which point the assembled crowd in the gallery shouted down the legislature in a glorious People’s Filibuster until time expired.

There was some drama thereafter about the GOP trying to claim that the disruption to procedure was a “time out” and they could still vote after midnight, and then more drama when the official record of the vote–originally showing it to have happened at 12:03–was mysteriously changed to 11:59. But in the end the vote died, and Cecile Richards led the people in the rotunda in a chorus of “The Eyes of Texas,” and it was beautiful. For a more extensive writeup, there’s this, and likely many others.

And then, this morning, the wonderful news that the Supreme Court has struck down Prop 8 and the Defense Of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. Of course, just yesterday they gutted the Voting Rights Act in a fashion that, among other things, will likely make it much harder for one Wendy Davis to keep her seat in the Texas Senate. (She won in through a VRA challenge to a redistricting that disenfranchised minority voters.) Scalia’s pissy dissent, in which he calls it “jaw-dropping” that the court should overrule two other branches of government, is especially galling in light of the VRA decision he signed on to literally the day before. But I spend so much of my time being enraged, and have so few pure opportunities for happiness and optimism in the power of big-hearted people to work for and effect positive change. I’m counting today as a win worth celebrating.

Kickstarter Documentary on Texas State Board of Education

I’ve written before about how the Texas State Board of Education has been hijacked by ideologue fundamentalist Christians, and how this has repercussions for the entire country.  (See here and here.)  There is currently a project on Kickstarter to fund the editing of a documentary about creationist Don McLeroy, longtime chair of the TSBOE.  In the trailer on the Kickstarter page there are several shots of people speaking in front of  a group holding up pro-science signs.  As it happens, I was in that group and am out of frame to the left of several of those shots.  The project has almost reached its funding goal; I’d encourage anyone interested in this subject to help it along.

I’ve Been Interviewed for Missions Unknown

Missions Unknown is a blog about science fiction, fantasy, and horror topics in San Antonio, run by John Picacio, Sanford Allen, and Paul Vaughn.  Last week Sanford interviewed me for their regular feature, “Made in S.A.”  He asked about my stories, my background with writing, Clarion, and my current interest in the Texas State Board of Education.  The interview went up today.

I think the last time I was interviewed for anything, I was a freshman in high school being asked my opinion of a proposed dress code for the school newspaper.  This is significantly more exciting than that was.

More on Don McLeroy, and How Texas Rules Textbooks

In a lovely bit of validation for my “This man must lose his job for the good of the country!” rant of two days ago, the New York Times Magazine has just published a ten page article on Texas education guidelines, with profiles of  Don McLeroy, Gail Lowe, and Cynthia Dunbar.  (Dunbar is perhaps the craziest of them, and briefly gained national attention in 2008 for claiming that Obama was a member of Al-Qaida.  All are still on the board of education.)  The whole thing is worth reading, if only for the portrait it paints of these grotesquely colorful characters.  But the most important thing in it is probably this excerpt from page 2:

But Tom Barber, who worked as the head of social studies at the three biggest textbook publishers before running his own editorial company, says, “Texas was and still is the most important and most influential state in the country.” And James Kracht, a professor at Texas A&M’s college of education and a longtime player in the state’s textbook process, told me flatly, “Texas governs 46 or 47 states.”

This only a local election with regard to who gets to vote in it.  McLeroy needs to go.  There are 19 days left.  Here’s the opposition movement website again: District 9 Citizens for a Smart State Board of Education.

A Small Thing You Can Do That Will Improve the U.S. Educational System

I haven’t been blogging a lot this year, but I’m breaking radio silence now because this one is big.  A guy from Texas who you might never have heard of is running for re-election, and unusual as it might seem, it is strongly in your interest that he not win.

Don McLeroy is currently on the Texas State Board of Education.  In fact, until very recently he was the Chair of the TSBOE.  He is a young earth creationist, and during his time as chair worked with the creationist group The Discovery Institute to rewrite state science curricula to reflect his religious ideology, supported by several other religious conservatives on the Board.  This culminated in late 2008 with a series of open hearings about proposed changes to the curriculum that brought people from all over the state — including me — to Austin to spend hours and hours testifying against the adulteration of science education in Texas.  The turnout was so unprecedented that the state legislature was forced to take notice, and eventually led to the loss of his chairmanship.  (Look through the archives of the Texas Freedom Network for more details.)  Our republican governor replaced him as chair with another TSBOE member, Gail Lowe; another creationist, but one of lower profile.  The battle rages wearily on.

Why This Matters To You

Assuming that you are a United States citizen, the actions of the TSBOE affect you, whether you live in Texas or not.  Back in 2002 the New York Times reported that Texas comprised 10% of the US textbook market, second only to California, and that textbook publishers were already changing the content of their products to meet Texas’s conservative tastes.  “Many publishers write their books with the Texas and California markets in mind, but complain of political pressure.”  Today California is $20 billion in debt, and has slashed its education budget statewide.  Texas is now the biggest game in textbook town.  The curriculum guidelines in Texas are going to influence the educational products available throughout the country.

There are seven creationists on the 15-member TSBOE, and three other board members who are politically conservative, but not avowedly creationist.  Of the lunatic fringe, McLeroy, following his ouster as Chair, is the most politically vulnerable.  There are 21 days left until the votes are cast, and a grassroots movement to oppose his re-election in District 9 has started.  It’s currently seeking donations, and as this is a small local election (albeit one with potentially far-reaching consequences), their needs are relatively modest.  I’d encourage anyone with an interest in the state of public education in the U.S. to look over the links provided by the District 9 Citizens for a Smart State Board of Education, listen to their proposed radio ad, and consider helping them reach (or hopefully exceed) their financial goal.  You will be helping to reduce by one the number of fundamentalist ideologues on the most influential board of education in the country.

District 9 Citizens for a Smart State Board of Education

Texas Is For Lovers. Spouses, Not So Much.

So way back in 2005 the Texas legislature, in its alarmingly finite wisdom, passed an amendment to the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage.  So eager were our elected representatives to protect us from the loathsome evil of same sex unions, it seems they may have overshot the mark somewhat and protected us from all marriage. The Democratic candidate for attorney general, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, has pointed out that a clause in the amendment seems to ban marriage entirely.

This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

This sentence is now a part of the state’s constitution.  So it is to be supposed that, for any existing marriages to be legal under Texas law, one must somehow make the argument that traditional marriage is neither similar nor identical to itself.

How I dearly wish Molly Ivins was around for this one.

EDITED TO ADD: For a sense of who Molly Ivins was, and for how absurd things sometimes get on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, I recommend this nine minute excerpt from the documentary Dildo Diaries about the bizarre doublethink nonsense that underlies our state’s sex toy laws.  Which actually seem comparatively sane in light of this marriage thing. (Probably NSFW.)