Thread: Voter ID becomes law in Pennsylvania, opponents vow legal fight

Voter ID becomes law in Pennsylvania, opponents vow legal fight

PHILADELPHIA | Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:11pm EDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls became law in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the latest in a spate of Republican-led efforts to impose stricter controls at the ballot box.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed the act into law, saying it set a "simple and clear standard to protect the integrity of our elections."

"I am signing this bill because it protects a sacred principle, one shared by every citizen of this nation," the Republican governor said. "That principle is one person, one vote."

Opponents, who say the measure seeks to suppress voter turnout, vowed to challenge it in court.

Pennsylvania joined several Republican-governed states, including Texas, Kansas and Wisconsin, that have adopted stricter voter identification laws, arguing they were needed to prevent ballot box fraud.

Supporters say the laws are no different from needing identification to board an airplane or obtain a library card.

But some civil rights groups say such laws discriminate against the poor who may not be able to pay fees for copies of legal documents such as birth certificates, and that they could suppress minority votes.

Democrats say voter identification measures are aimed at squeezing out university students and senior citizens who tend to vote for Democrats.

Andy Hoover, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union's Pennsylvania branch, said there was no evidence of voter impersonation fraud in the state.

Other states have encountered setbacks trying to impose voter identification requirements. A judge issued an injunction earlier this week against Wisconsin's law, and the U.S. Justice Department blocked a new voter identification law in Texas.

The Justice Department, which also blocked a voter identification law in South Carolina from taking effect, said the Texas law could harm Hispanic voters who lack identification documents.

"Our legal team is currently mapping a strategy for overturning this voter suppression bill," ACLU of Pennsylvania Executive Director Reggie Shuford said in a statement. "The evidence is clear. Some citizens will lose the vote if this becomes law."

Corbett said 99 percent of Pennsylvanians already had valid identification, and those who did not could get one for free at state Department of Transportation driver license centers.

Under the Pennsylvania law, photo identification will not be required for the state's April 24 primary, but will be required for the November 6 general election.

Voter ID becomes law in Pennsylvania, opponents vow legal fight | Reuters

PA will be sued by the DOJ in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1

Added to the Homepage
http://www.alipac.us/content/voter-i...gal-fight-266/

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

PA will be sued by the DOJ in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1

Yep, they must feel like they are swatting flies.

March 15, 2012 6:39 PM PrintText

Strict voter ID law passes in battleground Pennsylvania

By Phil Hirschkorn Topics Campaign 2012 .Play CBS News Video

(CBS News) NEW YORK - In an election year rush pushed primarily by Republicans, Pennsylvania has become the 16th state to adopt a strict voter photo ID law and the ninth state to do so in the past year.

The law requires voters to produce a Pennsylvania driver's license or another government-issued photo IphilD, such as a U.S. passport, military ID, or county/municipal employee ID. The state will also accept college ID or personal care home IDs, as long as they are current and include an expiration date.

"I am signing this bill because it protects a sacred principle, one shared by every citizen of this nation. That principle is: one person, one vote,'' said Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett said at a signing ceremony in Harrisburg yesterday. "It sets a simple and clear standard to protect the integrity of our elections.''

Corbett is a Republican governor with Republican-led state legislature, just like six of the other eight states with new photo ID laws - Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Mississippi, a very Republican-leaning state with a Republican governor and legislature, opted for a referendum, which passed last November, while Rhode Island, which also passed a new ID law, has a Republican-turned-Independent Governor (Lincoln Chafee) and a Democratic-controlled legislature.

The mainly Republican sponsors of these laws contend the measures will prevent voter impersonation fraud, although sponsors in every state are hard-pressed to provide examples of very rarely prosecuted crime.

Supporters of South Carolina's new voter photo ID law recently pointed to data suggesting ballots had been cast in the names of dead people more than 950 times, however, an investigation by the state election commission found no proof of fraud and only clerical errors.

When "CBS Evening News" researchers asked the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts today how many people had been convicted of voter impersonation or voter fraud in the past five years, the answer was zero.

Opponents contend these laws are actually an attempt to suppress turnout among college students, minorities, and the poor -- Democratic-leaning groups that happen to be the most likely not to possess the ID's or to have the greatest hardship obtaining them.

Pennsylvania Governor Corbett said any voters who do not have an acceptable form of photo ID would be to get one, free of charge, at any Pennsylvania Department of Transportation driver license center, provided they have the necessary documents, such as a birth certificate.

Underscoring the national partisan divide on this issue, all five governors who vetoed voter photo ID laws in 2011 - in Minnesota (Mark Dayton), Missouri (Jay Nixon), Montana (Brian Schweitzer), New Hampshire (Jonathan Lynch), and North Carolina (Bev Perdue) - were Democrats facing down Republican-led legislatures.

Pennsylvania's law will not be in effect for the state's presidential primary next month but will be in effect in November, when Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes are at stake. At a minimum, nine states with 91 electoral votes, or one-third of the 270 needed to win the presidency will be affected, most significantly, Florida, with 29 electoral votes.

The Brennan Center for Justice considers the photo ID laws, along with new laws limiting early voting and voter registration, restrictive and wrong.

"These laws represent the most significant cutback in voting rights in decades," said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, and co-author of a 2011 report on the laws.

"Rather than erecting senseless barriers to voting, we should make our voting system work for all Americans by upgrading our ramshackle voter registration system."

Before Pennsylvania, 15 states had adopted voter photo ID laws, according to a tally by the National Conference of State Legislatures.


The nine states where the photo ID laws are in effect are Kansas and Tennessee (among the newcomers), plus Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, and South Dakota, according to NCSL. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of these laws in its 6-3 decision in a 2008 case over Indiana's law - Crawford v. Marion County Election Board.

However, the Justice Department is already challenging the laws in two states using its powers under the 1965 Voting Rights Act to review changes to voting laws in states with a history of racial discrimination.

This week the Justice Department blocked Texas's ID law, citing a discriminatory effect on Hispanic voters.

In December, the department blocked South Carolina's law, citing a discriminatory effect on black voters. Both states are suing DOJ.

Alabama and Rhode Island's laws do not take effect until 2014. Alabama is required to obtain DOJ approval, as will Mississippi - once it adopts legislation to implement the law - and Virginia, whose governor is expected to sign a recently passed voter ID law.

A Wisconsin state judge this week declared the voter photo ID law passed by its state legislature last year unconstitutional; the state is appealing.

Most of the new voter photo ID laws are what the NCSL calls "strict," meaning if a registered voter lacks an acceptable, government-issued photo ID, he or she cannot vote on Election Day. Instead, that voter may cast a provisional ballot that would counted only the voter subsequently proves his or her identity to voting officials in person with a photo ID within days.

Sixteen states require voters to produce a non-photo form of ID before voting.

Strict voter ID law passes in battleground Pennsylvania - Political Hotsheet - CBS News