Dear Republican Friend,

The House has approved – for the fifth and hopefully final time – legislation providing that voters in our state show a picture ID when they vote.

Now, Voter ID is only one vote away from becoming law.

This week, the House Republicans stripped everything out of the bill that didn’t strictly deal with showing an ID at the polls – all of the early voting and absentee provisions that fueled most of the debate and threw up the most roadblocks.

Attaching non-related voting provisions to the Voter ID bill have killed it in previous years.

So the House Republican Caucus decided to make this a very simple issue: The Voter ID bill is about showing an ID and securing our electoral process. Period. Show an appropriate, state-issued, picture ID and validate that it is you casting your vote. As some of my colleagues have said: “If you can fly with it, you can vote with it.”

There is companion legislation now moving through the House, introduced by Speaker Pro Tempore Jay Lucas, that addresses the early voting issue. The legitimate issues surrounding early voting need to be vetted through the committee process – with public hearings, testimony, and a full debate on the pros and cons. To date, that hasn’t happened in the House.

So we sent the Senate the “clean” Voter ID bill.  Now it is time for the Senate to act so we can send this legislation to the Governor’s desk.

All the Senate Republicans have to do is hold firm and vote to "concur" with the House version.

I’m asking you, and every other Republican activist in the state, to call your Senator. Tell him to vote to "concur" with the House version of the bill. (Just as State Republican Chairman Karen Floyd urged on Thursday.) Tell him to you want the Voter ID bill and JUST the Voter ID bill – so we can fulfill a major plank of the state Republican party platform and finally move on to other critically important issues.

For a list of Republican Senators and how to contact them, click here.

Thank you for your continued support of the House Republican Caucus.

Rep. Kenny Bingham
House Majority Leader