Having served four terms as mayor of San Antonio, Texas, wasn’t enough to earn 97-year-old Lila Cockrell a ballot when she showed up to the polls without a valid ID in last week’s mayoral runoff.
Cockrell, who was the city’s first female mayor, told My San Antonio she wasn’t allowed to cast a vote Wednesday, even though election officials knew who she was.
“I’m 97, I don’t drive anymore,” said Cockrell. “I haven’t been on a cruise or anything in years.”
A Texas election law passed in 2011 requires that voters bring one of seven forms of identification, including passports and drivers licenses, to participate in elections.
Elections administrator Jacque Callanen conceded “uncomfortable” poll workers recognized Cockrell, but their hands were tied.
“The law is the law,” Callanen said. “The election officials did what they’re supposed to do.”
The nonagenarian trailblazer became San Antonio’s mayor in May 1975 and stayed in office until 1981, when she stepped away to care for her ailing husband, who died in 1987. She ran for reelection in 1988 and was elected to a fourth term.
Henry Cisneros, who was San Antonio’s mayor in the interim, reportedly called what happened to Cockrell “a horrible incident” and faulted the electoral system for allowing the incident to occur. Cockrell’s successor Judge Nelson Wolff, who was mayor from 1991 to 1995, called it “a crying shame.”