As most of you know, I worked for ACORN/Project Vote during the 2004 election as a county coordinator. As a result, I have direct experience working with people of color in Philadelphia’s inner city and I am not at all surprised to see the following information about how many people there lack photo identification.
An astounding 758,939 registered voters in the state, or nine percent, do not have PennDot IDs, according to data released last Tuesday by the Department of State. In Philadelphia, it’s even worse: 186,830 registered voters, or 18 percent, do not have ID. Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele had previously assured lawmakers that 99 percent of Pennsylvanians possess the necessary ID―based on what, I have absolutely no idea.
The state released this astonishing data on July 3 in what seems like a transparent effort to ensure that the bomb-like news would drop like a dud on the July 4th holiday. And they did so with the almost-unbelievably-Orwellian title “Department of State and PennDOT Confirm Most Registered Voters Have Photo ID.”
Corbett has rebuffed a call from rights advocates and civic groups to delay voter ID implementation. But a legal challenge presses on. 93-year old Germantown resident Viviette Applewhite, who has been unable to obtain a Pennsylvania birth certificate, is the lead plaintiff in the ACLU and NAACP lawsuit. Other plaintiffs include “three elderly women who say they cannot obtain necessary ID because they were born in the Jim Crow South, where states have no records of their births.”
Under Pennsylvania’s new law, there are some other forms of acceptable identification, including a valid and current passport, military IDs, and photo IDs from Pennsylvania-accredited universities. As you might imagine, these alternative forms of identification are unlikely to put even a small dent in the 18% of Philadelphians who are currently disenfranchised.
This isn’t complicated. A large percentage of Philadelphians do not own a car and therefore do not drive with any frequency. In the poorer neighborhoods, many people do not engage in banking or other economic activities that require photo ID, so they don’t bother obtaining photo ID. The city does not have many Division of Motor Vehicle centers so, for most people, obtaining an ID requires a bus ride with at least one transfer. It appears that about 18% of the city’s residents have never felt sufficient motivation to bother with the hassle, and their desire to vote in November is really the only reason they would go to the trouble now.
I know of no examples of voter fraud occurring in Pennsylvania in recent years. It’s conceivable that these new onerous voter registration laws could prevent a handful of fraudulent votes, but that will come at the expense of disenfranchising a substantial percentage of the state’s voters who are already registered to vote.
In 2008, Obama carried Pennsylvania by a little more than 600,000 votes. He netted 478,000 of those votes out of Philadelphia County. An 18% percent reduction in the Philadelphia County vote would be about 130,000 people who are disenfranchised . Obama carried 83% of the county vote, meaning that he’d lose about 108,000 votes, while Romney would theoretically lose about 22,000. However, at least 99% of Romney’s votes in the county will be cast by people who have a valid driver’s license or passport, so that 22,000 number will never happen.
The new voter ID law is intended to have this consequence. Under the pretense of fighting voter fraud that does not exist, they are eliminating tens of thousands of Democratic votes in Philadelphia alone. And many other states are implementing similar laws that all have the intention of disenfranchising legitimate Democratic voters. And these voters are overwhelmingly people of color, students who don’t have a current address, and the elderly who don’t drive and cannot locate the proper documents to obtain a state-issued photo ID.
If the intent of these laws to rig elections, the effect is racist and discriminatory, and should be illegal under the Voting Rights Act.
I will repeat this until I am blue in the face. When I was growing up I was taught one of the differences in our country was that we beklieved it was better that 10 guilty people go free rather than to convict one innocent one. (Of course, at that time this depended on race, etc, but it was still the basic principle.)
The current Republican Party feels it is better that 10,000 legitimate voters be disenfranchised rather than to let maybe, possibly, though unlikely, one fraudulent vote to be cast.
The real shame is that many people see no problem with this.
On the plus side, the Wisconsin Voter ID law was thrown out by the courts yesterday.
The courts threw out the Wisconsin Voter ID law yesterday? Are you sure? That’s huge news, and I haven’t seen it anywhere.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Wrong, unfortunately. The law was stayed, not thrown out. It is not in force for the two elections that, in fact, have already occurred.
This says nothing about Nov. It is possible that the law will be stayed until then, but that many not be the case. Until the SC rules, we won’t have anything settled. And we already know that they accept certain types of voter ID laws.
It’s the only way Republicans can win the election.
Bet they don’t away with this.
If? BooMan
I hope that Eric Holder and DOJ move on this quickly. They have more latitude under the law in states that historically discriminated using voting laws. Being able to get the same relief in states outside those would be a big step forward in precedents.
I’d like to know more about the timing here. If the Justice Department decides to challenge the laws, would there be a ruling before November? It seems unlikely. Does that mean that the ID laws are in force for this election, or not?
In Wisconsin, the ID laws were suspended by a court ruling, but as far as I know, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue (another commenter said there was a ruling yesterday, but I have no info on that). The Wisconsin court generally splits 4-3 Republican, so the best timing for them would seem to be a decision in mid to late October. That would create the maximum uncertainty for voters, giving them very little time to get the documentation they will need to obtain an ID. It doesn’t give the opposition any time to prepare an appeal to the Supreme Court if they wanted to.
If the election is close (and I expect it to be), the outcome will hinge on the voter ID laws.
Most likely other parties will seek immediate injunctions staying the law while DOJ investigates. That is what happened in Wisconsin for their recall election.
Hinging on voter ID laws and other legal means of excluding voters. Rick Scott in Florida just pushed all Florida felons off the rolls–duplicating what Jebbie did for his brother in 2000. Christ had reversed that action when he was governor.
Crist did it by EXECUTIVE ORDER, not be changing the laws for felon re-enfranchisement.
hint..that’s why anything done by EXECUTIVE ORDER can be UNDONE if the next Executive doesn’t feel that issue.
An ever-excellent point.
Crist. You had me doing a spit-take there for a second.
I have trouble keeping straight the spelling of the names of the former governor of Florida and the current governor of New Jersey. Apologies to your keyboard.
Mike Turzai openly admitted it’s to suppress votes. It’s on youtube.
DOJ needs to shut this down yesterday. At Scrapple TV, we are spreading the word: the state GOP is our piggy of the week, specifically for their vote-rigging efforts.
If they were requiring voter ID and making it easy to get a voter ID that would be one thing, but of course where ever these requirements are passed they do everything they use it to put every roadblock in place that they can.
Yesterday my son went to get his learner’s permit. The DMV offices in Colorado are generally run reasonably well, with good response time. You arrive and someone greets you and makes sure you have everything necessary before you get in line, then you get a number and wait in reasonable comfort until you are called. There are typically 4 different sets of desks for different types of requests and staffers are usually polite and efficient.
BUT, most DMV offices can no longer process requests involving an ID – those require going to one of a few offices that have incredibly long wait times. Those offices are generally in poorer parts of town, crowded, uncomfortable, and poorly run with the slowest staffers they can find.
There is a way around it, of course, for those with money – there are two 3rd party services right next door to this office which can give you a driving test and a license very quickly for a relatively low fee – but of course they can’t give out the free voter IDs. For those the wait time is 5-6 hours.
My wife asked me why and I explained that this was part of the voter ID discrimination. She didn’t buy it.
Don’t even get me started on the DMV. I took my son for his temps test and he brought his Social Security card, Birth Certificate, and his passport and they said it wasn’t enough ID. They wanted proof of residence. We had to drive all over town (the only license bureau that issues temps and photo ID is half an hour away) and find a bank branch where he has an account and have them type up a letterhead that says he lives where he does.
This is madness. They’re also changing the process for licenses to having you go in and pay for the renewal, show necessary ID, and then they give you a paper copy of your driver’s license. They mail the actual license weeks later.
How is this any good? How much more money will have to be spent on printing paper licenses and the mailing out the real ones? I swear, it’s completely insane.
These laws should have a grandfather clause for people who have an existing voting record. The state should give free ID’s.
Illinois is fighting the federal requirement in federal court. Link later, got to go.
If “these laws” were being implemented for the legitimate purpose of preventing election fraud, they would be different in all sorts of ways.
Yours is such an obvious idea. There are many obvious things that could be done. That they aren’t being done – that these laws are written up without such considerations – is a huge “tell” about the intentions of their sponsors.
Here’s a list of all the ALEC sponsored model bills affecting civil rights and democracy that are being supplied to legislators in states across the country. The voting rights act is included here in detail. Its a cornucopia of wingnuttery.
Notice how this link blames Barack Obama for a law passed in 2005:
http://www.ice-news.net/2011/03/14/illinois-dragging-feet-on-implementing-real-id-america%E2%80%99s-
internal-passport/
Can’t find a link any more about the law suit. Illinois and 11 other states had filed suit barring implementation of REAL ID based on separation of powers. It seems the suit may have been dropped or dismissed.