Recently, Governor Corbett has endorsed legislation which would require every Pennsylvanian to present photo ID each time they voted -- regardless of how long they had been voting at their poll. They could not vote without ID even if the poll workers knew them to be who they said they were. If a poll worker allowed someone to vote who was a close personal friend or neighbor and had been voting at that poll for 30 years, they would be committing a crime and risking a prison sentence.
The governor claims that this bill is necessary to prevent widespread "voter fraud." However, the truth is that this bill would do nothing to stop any voter fraud that actually happens in our state. It would however disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of long-voting Pennsylvanians who, conveniently enough for our Republican governor, tend to vote Democratic.
In support of this bill, Gov. Corbett's Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele points only to allegations that the group ACORN committed improprieties while registering voters. Assuming the truth of those allegations, this bill has nothing to do with, and would have no impact on, voter registration practices. The only form of "fraud" voter ID would prevent is voter impersonation. If someone claims they are someone they are not, in order to either vote more than once or vote when not eligible, voter ID would theoretically stop them. But, voter impersonation almost never happens.
A five-year study conducted by President Bush's Justice Department found that out of over 300 million votes, there were only 86 cases of individual voter fraud nationwide, and most of them involved immigrants who misunderstood their eligibility.
In Pennsylvania, since 2004, there have been over 20 million votes cast and four convictions for fraud, all of which involved people registering when not eligible. None of these cases involved someone pretending to be someone they were not. Secretary Aichele herself, in a previous Philadelphia Inquirer article is quoted as saying: "I've worked in polling places since 1981, and I've never seen voter fraud."
It is important to remember that fraudulently impersonating a voter is already a felony. Risking years in prison to gain an undeserved vote seems like a low-gain, high-risk crime -- which is probably why it never happens. In addition, a voter already has to show proof of who they are the first time they vote in a new precinct. Thus, under current law, Pennsylvania has significant and apparently effective protections in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process.
The Corbett administration then claims that a Department of State (Secretary Aichele's department) "analysis" shows that "99 percent of eligible voters currently have acceptable photo IDs." I took the liberty of calling the department and asking how that figure was calculated. It turns out that they took the total number of photo IDs PennDot has issued and divided by the number of eligible voters in Pennsylvania.
The problem with this is that there are many thousands of currently valid IDs issued to people who have died, or have moved, or are legal, non-citizen immigrants or are not eligible to vote for other reasons. Thus, it is misleading and irresponsible to connect the numbers of IDs and voters in this context. After I publicized this critique of their methodology, the Department of State changed their claim of how many people currently have valid IDs from "99 percent" to "the vast majority." They do not define "vast majority" but it clearly means something significantly less than 99 percent.
It is more likely that the number of Pennsylvania voters without photo IDs is close to the national figures, which are startling. According to the Washington Post, 11 percent of all Americans lack photo ID, including 20 percent of voters under 29, 15 percent of those earning under $35,000 per year, and a full quarter of all African-Americans.
What all of this means is that to solve a problem that literally does not exist in our state, we are going to disenfranchise approximately 700,000 Pennsylvania voters. These voters -- poor people, African-Americans and students -- tend to disproportionately vote Democratic. This appears to be yet another cynical effort to rig future elections by people who have no respect for the democratic process and whose only concern is winning. It is ironic that this effort is occurring in the state where representative democracy was born.
Follow Sen. Daylin Leach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/daylinleach
Have been a native-born citizen of the United States for 74 years, but had to produce a birth certificate in AZ to get a driver's license, even though I had been licensed in CA for decades, then for 18 years in UT. So what's the big deal about producing a picture ID to vote?
1. Simple....you're creating obstacles for people to exercise their right to vote.
(especially folks that don't drive, or that are otherwise homebound, or disabled. )
2. Why create a solution for a problem that doesn't exist?
3. Why is it that only Republicans are introducing legislation?
What is it solving by the way...except creating obstacles to voters rights?
Where is all the voter fraud? We seemed to survive the last 230 yrs without VOTER ID legislation.
Could it be that this is a way to curtail votes that would go against conservatives?
Funny how this a GOP driven initiative.
Cause they like the idea of keeping poor, less educated people from voting.
What next? Pass a writing test in English?
Require a passport?
It should be very easy for you to prove that voter id laws disenfranchise voters. All you will have to do is take the data available from states, like Indiana, that already have laws in effect. If these laws disenfranchise even a fraction of the number of people you stated, it should be easily seen in the election results from these states. You should be able to see a dramatic decline in the numbers of African-Americans voting, as well as college age and seniors.
I will be anxiously awaiting the supporting data from these states to prove your argument.
http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/documents/Indiana_voter.pdf
Study done in 2010 by University of Missouri Institute of Public Policy:
https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/2549/EffectsPhotographicIdentificationVoter.pdf?sequence=1
actual voter participation numbers from Indiana for mid term and presidential elections (02,04,06,08,10)
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2010_General_Election_Turnout_Data.pdf
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2006_General_Turnout_and_Registration.pdf
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/2002GeneralElectionTurnout.pdf
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2004%20Municipal%20Registration%20and%20Turnout.pdf
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2008_Municipal_Registration_and_Turnout.pdf
"A five-year study conducted by President Bush's Justice Department found that out of over 300 million votes, there were only 86 cases of individual voter fraud nationwide, and most of them involved immigrants who misunderstood their eligibility."
The GOP is spending millions of dollars to stop what they deem to be voter fraud. If only 86 cases turn up from 300 million voters this is proof that voter fraud is not a problem. The fact is there were more erroneous votes cast by electronic machines in the past election.
Look at the benefits that person would have other than being able to vote by owning a valid ID like being able to open up a checking account, write a check, drive a car, rent a movie, check into a Motel 6 and so on. If I were a black person living in Pennsylvania I would be mortified that people assumed that 25% of us are too dumb to operate a vehicle or are so out of the main stream of society that we d not have a valid ID. Good grief!
IT IS MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT.
Really...be intelligent for ONE SECOND.
Does this solution SOLVE a problem OR create a BIGGER one?
Who does it create a BIGGER problem for?
Check into ALEC and American Heritage Foundation.
They love it when they create obstacles for non conservatives voters.
"To put this in perspective. There were 40 UFO sightings in Wisconsin in 2008.
"Indeed, there were more than three times as many "documented" sightings of unidentified flying objects than there were documented instances of improper votes."
http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/blog/2011/01/van-hollen-claims-on-voter-fraud-are-out-of-this-world.html
What a talent to go right to the root with using only a few words. LoL !!
http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/alec-the-voice-of-corporate-special-interests-state-legislatures#voterid
It never bothered me too much since I need ID to cash a check, go to the doctor's office (along with my insurance card), and NOW they want to see ID to enter one of my local hospitals......
************Actually, I prefer to do some things without an ID like visit a hospital, but those days are over.
**Sigh**
Personally, everybody 18 years old and older should have a valid ID.
Of course the two political parties take opposite sides.....if ONE is for something, the OTHER is against it.
***And sometimes they switch positions too.
------Obamacare was originally a Repug idea (such as romneycare).
Sounds bogus at best.
Sorry but we are not able to just take your word for it when you vote.
Hmmmmm?