Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action

 September MFSA Meeting Will Focus on

Who votes?  Who decides?  Stay tuned! 

Saint John’s UMC, 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756

September 13, 7:00pm

Rebecca Robertson, Legal and Policy Director of the ACLU of Texas, will share with us information about the recent voter identification laws and the possible impact of these laws in disenfranchising voters.  Last week, the D.C. District Court denied the State of Texas request to preclear the requirement that all voters show one of a limited number of photo IDs at the polls. The Texas ID requirements that have been in effect for several years will continue to be in effect at the polls for the Nov. 6 General Election. The ruling came just two days after a federal panel said lawmakers had violated the Voting Rights Act in drawing boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts.  U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2002, sat on both panels and joined both rulings. Opponents of the voter ID laws say that they unlawfully reduce the ability of the poor, minority, and disabled to effectively exercise their electoral rights.

Jan Dawes will share information about opportunities to be trained to register voters and to assist in voter registration efforts in Travis County. The deadline for registering to vote in the 2012 Presidential Election is October 9.  For more information visit  http://www.traviscountytax.org/goVotersVDR.do.  An excellent source of voter information is the League of Women Voters website  http://www.lwvtexas.org/.

We will gather at in the Saint John’s UMC, 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin at 6:30pm for snacks & mingling.  The program begins at 7:00.  We hope to see you there!