Philadelphia City Commissioner Fears Chaos On Election Day

www.slate.com:

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- I wrote a little earlier today about how hard it's been for the state to defend its new voter ID law. There was a new example of that in the final set of witness testimonies, which brought a leader of the League of Women Voters and a Philadelphia city commissioner into the room to talk about how impossible it would be to educate all eligable voters on the new rules.

Read the whole story at www.slate.com

Comments

[doubtingthomas51]

09:26 AM on 08/02/2012

I actually posted about exactly this yesterday in response to a Florida article.
It takes little imagination to envision massive civil disobedience at multiple polling sites in the same city happening concurrently.
Ever seen how many police it takes to drag a single non-violent protester out of any where?
Tear gassing or macing polling sites won't exactly work well either!
Think of your own polling place. Think about the pace it moves at. Now think about how few wrongly disenfranchised people it would take to cause utter chaos.
Think about about polling disruption in three or four razor close states.
Think about the day after.This republican invented issue will precipitate a massive constitutional crises.

[bigsteve5000]

06:02 AM on 08/02/2012

civil disobedience,just imagine how it would play out on tv if the police were carring monorities out of voting stations.That would be a huge wake up call to the country.

[AbstractImp]

05:44 AM on 08/02/2012

This is what the right wing wants -
to delegitimize the results.

[oldwolf49]

05:17 AM on 08/02/2012

It's all a front, nothing going on here, move along, you will be processed and categorized in turn just keep moving.............If this is how it looks now I really don't want to see what it will look like in 95 more days.

[jamsie]

04:15 AM on 08/02/2012

On election day last April when they were supposed to test this new law, I handed my ID to the poll worker. She looked at me kind of funny and asked why I was showing her my D/L. I said I thought we were testing the new voter ID law. The worker told me she knew nothing about asking for ID, and all the other people working in the polling place all laughed. I didn't get the joke.

The poll workers didn't know about the new law? Wow. I can only imagine how bad things are going to be come November if this stupid law isn't overturned.

[HellBank]

03:25 AM on 08/02/2012

You know republicans, if you have to cheat to win than maybe you shouldn't.

[WhatDaBleep]

02:43 AM on 08/02/2012

Just republicans trying to stage a coup against democracy!

[Crisdean Wulver]

02:36 AM on 08/02/2012

What does this mean? It probably means that even if the voter ID laws are decided to be unconstitutional, that the damage is probably already done.

Come election day, many voters won't be able to vote. And it will all be chalked up to various bureaucratic errors, none of which are technically voter fraud or civil rights violations.

The Republican lawyers have done their homework well.

They've prevented eligible multitudes of voters from voting, without technically breaking the law.

[LibertarianCentrist]

02:04 AM on 08/02/2012

Yes... pulling out your wallet will be incredibly chaotic....

[Alux]

01:55 AM on 08/02/2012

There is already chaos every day going through ariport security, getting into federal buildings, buying alcoholic beverages, renting cars, cashing checks, and using credit cards.

Isn't there?

[doubtingthomas51]

09:28 AM on 08/02/2012

Right.But few people will engage in civil disobedience or even violence to rent a car.
This could get very ugly.
A pretext to martial law post election?

[Alux]

09:43 AM on 08/02/2012

Or for suspension of the election and martial law pre-election?

[hrpmap]

01:17 AM on 08/02/2012

If the welfare office told them to get an ID before they get a check they would have one within hours.

[dashcat]

01:38 AM on 08/02/2012

Bigot.

[LibertarianCentrist]

02:04 AM on 08/02/2012

maybe so, but he has a point.

[rosiebag]

02:12 AM on 08/02/2012

idiot

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

01:58 AM on 08/02/2012

Why do you assume that this affects welfare users only? Another stupid comment.

[rosiebag]

02:13 AM on 08/02/2012

Well are they not Holder's people.

[hrpmap]

01:08 AM on 08/02/2012

Liberals sure are in a frenzy about people proving they are who they say they are at the polls. Makes one wonder why. Are they afraid they can't win without cheating/

[dashcat]

01:42 AM on 08/02/2012

Republicans are the only cheaters. Disenfranchising the poor, elderly and handicapped. And if that doesn't work, they miscount votes, rig voting machines, make ballots confusing or just plaine trow boxes of ballots in the ocean, river or nearest body of water.

I assune all republicans are cheaters and crooks. Especially the Tea side of the party.

[LibertarianCentrist]

02:05 AM on 08/02/2012

And I now "assune" that all liberals can't spell.... I'm sorry... just thought I'd "trow" that out there.

[hazmatlang]

02:32 AM on 08/02/2012

Of course they do,but that is to conteract liberals voting six times per election and continuing after death.

[LoyalDem4646]

02:21 AM on 08/02/2012

We have to do something to compensate for conservatives buying votes. David Siegal practically admitted he bought 2,000 votes for Bush in Florida so be quiet. There is no way, with the majority of people being Middle Class, the TP or GOP can win without cheating which is why they keep trying to gerrymander their states.

[hazmatlang]

02:36 AM on 08/02/2012

Really tired of the 'middle class mantra" What is that people who earn between 50k and 150k or is it people who earn 10k to 100k, how about 10k to a 1000k, all that really is is liberals trying to involve people in their group for political purposes alone or union banter abou the benefits of unionizing.

[Fox Wood]

03:13 AM on 08/02/2012

Well, I, for one, am middle class, a member of the Taxed Enough Already party, and there is no way in the world that I would ever vote for a democrat again.
So I really don't believe that you know what you are talking about.

[Rantibus]

12:50 AM on 08/02/2012

Is this not what the GOP is counting on? - chaos that can only be resolved AFTER the voting is over?

[dashcat]

01:44 AM on 08/02/2012

Yes it is. Now they are floating rumors that Obama and the Secret ervice are planning a fake assasination attempt in order to postpone elections.

So if some whckjob rightwing extremist takes a shot at Obama it will be an Obama conspiracy.

These monsters will stop at nothing.

[hazmatlang]

03:27 AM on 08/02/2012

cool I haven't heard that theory, but I don't think the SS would go along, most although a few diddle with hookers, are patriots

[TeraWatt60]

12:10 AM on 08/02/2012

Amazing how when the State of Pennsylvania admits that there is no voter fraud so the "reason" manufactured for this law is a fraud. That righties still try to hide behind the notion that this and the concurrent laws to restrict early voting (especially on the Sunday before the election) are not about restricting access to the polls by the "wrong kind" of people. In 2008 the people voted ,many for the first time, and Teapublicans got their butts kicked because the older white religiosity crowd wasn't enough to win and so they want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[hrpmap]

01:10 AM on 08/02/2012

How would they know since they have never gone over their voter registration lists...answer they would not.

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

02:00 AM on 08/02/2012

How would you know when the Republican run State of Pennsylvania stated in Court that there is no voter fraud? What do you know that the State does not?

[TeraWatt60]

09:48 AM on 08/02/2012

You are reaching...kinda like that Steve King claiming that Obama's Mom sent a "telegram from Kenya". Teapublicans simply are trying to rig the game and those who support it are truly unAmerican and no better than the rightwing parties in third world countries who do the same so that the corrupt wealthy keep power

[OldKatt]

12:03 AM on 08/02/2012

Don't worry about any chaos. If there's any question about the ballots, or about who can vote, or about who won, the conservatives on the Supreme Court will make sure R.money wins.

[hazmatlang]

02:47 AM on 08/02/2012

God i hope so!