AUSTIN, TEXAS -- The Texas Senate on Monday begins debate on a bill to require voters to produce an official identification card when they vote.
Gov. Rick Perry declared the legislation an emergency priority last week. That means they can bypass normal procedures and be debated more quickly, in the first 30 days of the session.
A few hours later, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced that senators would begin considering the bill Monday, making it the first substantive legislation that lawmakers will debate in the nascent session.
Republicans are making stronger voter ID laws a top priority because they say it will prevent fraud. Democrats say it's a partisan bill designed to increase GOP margins at the ballot box.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston told the Houston Chronicle ,"I don't think it should come as a surprise to too many people that they have every intention of passing it. They've got the support and the numbers and the gavel to do so," he said. "I will assume it'll be a partisan vote."
Many legislators believe that the top priority is the budget, and that it needs to be addressed before other matters. The state is facing anywhere from a $15 billion to $27 billion shortfall.
Perry declared two emergency issues one being the voter IDand the other a resolution supporting a balanced budget amendment. In his emergency declaration, Perry said it was important for lawmakers to address "these priority issues more quickly."
But House Democratic Caucus leader Jessica Farrar of Houston was quoted as saying "Why is voter ID an emergency? Why isn't it more of an emergency to figure out how to make sure kids can still go to college?"
Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University told the Chronicle, that declaring these issues an emergency may cause some confusion to those not familiar with the inner-workings of the Legislature.
"To declare it as an emergency doesn't mean this the most important issue that we'll deal with this session," Jillson said.
It means those issues are "ready to be brought forward by these large Republican majorities and, to some extent, it's also partisan and ideological because (the governor) only identifies issues that make a particular Republican point, like sanctuary cities or Voter ID," he said.
Democrats successfully blocked a similar voter ID bill in 2009.
