Take Him Up on His Offer – #VoterID #RonRamsey

You can’t say we didn’t warn you. Democrats for years have been warning against the problems of pushing a mandate, like Voter ID, without funding the voter education, and infrastructure required to deal with the increased demand at the states Driver’s license centers. Despite this, and efforts in the House and Senate to both block the new voter ID law, and failing that, make gaining a photo ID more accessible, Republicans crammed it down the throats of Tennesseans.

There are a whole lot of problems with this bill, aside from the fact that, you know voter fraud isn’t really a problem. Nope, more people have been indicted or convicted of gaming the system from the inside than from “impersonating” someone. But hey, don’t let facts stop your agenda, right?

So now that we have this ridiculous bill, what do we do? Well, if you want to vote and don’t have a photo on your state approved ID, like 126,000 seniors in this state, you go down and smile for the camera, which is exactly what people are doing. This is where that lack of funding comes in. The wait times are REALLY long.

There have been several news accounts of the long wait times. Yesterday, some outlets reported that wait times were between 55 and 86 min. Of course, that only counts the time that you’ve been in the building, not all the time waiting outside in line.

Y’all, it’s so bad the state hired a Driver’s License Czar. And I thought Republicans hated Czars now. #DANG

One irony of this is that in east TN, which is strongly Republican, wait times are the longest. Johnson City reports an 86 min AVERAGE wait time. Wow! Guess you can’t do it on your lunch break.

Johnson City is represented by 4 Republicans, as far as I can tell. It sits on the border of three counties, so it gets pretty squirrely. Sen. Rusty Crowe, and Reps. Scotty Campbell, Matthew Hill, and CCR Kent Williams represent the area. If you live out that way, you might want to give those boys a call, and maybe a ear-full about how ridiculous waiting 86 minutes to spend 5 minutes is.

But if you think the wait time in Johnson City is bad, wait ’til you hear this. There are 95 counties in Tennessee, but only 48 driver’s service centers. I count 30 of the 95 counties that have no services for Drivers Licenses at all. So how are people going to get ID’s if they can’t get to where the ID’s are done?

Thankfully, last week Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey offered rides to anyone that can’t get a photo ID. Now I don’t praise the Lt. Governor that much, but I think it’s really cool of him to offer, free of charge and at his own personal expense, to get people to and from ID locations. So if you need an ID to vote, I suggest you give him a call.

615.741.4524 or Toll-Free at 800.449.8366 x14524

I can see it now, busloads of poor and elderly people getting delivered to the doorstep of the Driver’s Service locations all over the state, and dropped off back at home with a shiny new photo ID. Heck, this might even create a few jobs. In fact, this represents in the entirety of the Republicans job creation agenda. Way to lead Lt. Gov. Ramsey.

The way I see it, if there are 126,000 seniors that don’t have photo ID’s, and a bus holds about 60 able bodied individuals, the Lt. Gov. is going to need about 2100 bus trips to handle the senior citizen volume alone, not to mention other folks that, for whatever reason, don’t have an ID. Let’s help him exceed that goal. Call him now.

615.741.4524 or Toll-Free at 800.449.8366 x14524

Or shoot him an email.

And since most of those places that have no Drivers License Centers are in rural America, that could be a long trip. Maybe the Lt. Gov. could have boxed lunches, and sodas for the road. Man that’d be great. Like a field trip. They could sing songs and have a good ole time. It could be a bonding experience.

Yep, I know the Lt. Governor won’t mind. Heck it’s his civic duty as an elected official. And since he’s all about cutting red tape and fiscal responsibility, I know he won’t charge the state back for his expenses. Why that would be unseemly. Nope, good ole Ron Ramsey will just shoulder the burden of the expense of a bill that he supported. How’s that for personal responsibility? Way to live what you preach sir.

I’m so excited about this possibility I think I’m going to head over to Orange Mound, round me up some senior citizens and folks without ID’s, call the Lt. Governor, and place an order for a bus to get these folks to a Driver’s License Center today. You can’t let opportunities like this pass you by, you’ve gotta grab the bull by the horns.

I suggest you do the same. Go out and round up a bunch of folks who don’t have ID’s, make sure they’re registered to vote, and call the Lt. Gov. about when that bus will be in the area to pick these folks up. I’m sure he’ll hold to his word, I mean, that’s what leadership is right?

Lt. Gov. Ramsey, I suggest you start getting those bus orders ready. I’ve got a feeling you’ll be getting a fair number of calls in the coming days. And once word spreads, man, is this gonna be awesome, you could have as many as a couple of hundred bus orders a month.

Yep, I’m gonna take you up on your offer sir. I can’t wait to see how your staff responds. I know it’ll be fantastic. Heck, maybe you and Bill Gibbons and that new fancy ID Czar can get this whole thing handled by the March Primary.

Good luck sir, I’m sure you’ll be anxiously awaiting my call.