Ten Takeaways From Pennsylvania’s Voter ID Trial

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169230/ten-takeaways-pennsylvanias-voter-id-trial

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1. A lot of voters don’t have valid voter ID. University of Washington political scientist Matt Barreto, a witness for the plaintiffs (the suit was brought by the ACLU, the Advancement Project and other voting rights groups), found more than 1 million registered voters in Pennsylvania—12.8 percent of the electorate—don’t have sufficient voter ID. Moreover,379,000 registered voters don’t have the underlying documents, such as a birth certificate, needed to obtain the right ID; 174,000 of them voted in 2008.

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2. The state doesn’t know its own law very well. During the debate over the law in the state legislature, Secretary of the Commonwealth Carole Aichele repeatedly stated that 99 percent of Pennsylvania voters had the right ID. A subsequent study by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation found that 758,000 registered voters, 9.2 percent of the electorate, lacked a state-issued PennDot ID. During the trial, Pennsylvania State Department official Rebecca Oyler testified that she calculated the “99 percent have ID” figure in less than twenty-four hours while lacking sufficient data from the department of transportation. When pressed on the specifics of the law and the number of people who lack voter ID, Aichele responded: “I don’t know what the law says.”

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3. The state is unprepared to implement the law. Pennsylvania has allocated funds for only 75,000 “free” voter ID cards, even though the department of transportation found that ten times as many voters may lack valid ID. Nor is the state equipped to handle all of the people who will need to get ID. “There were 71 PennDot offices, but 13 of them were only open one day a week,” Slate’s Dave Weigel noted. “Nine Pennsylvania counties have no PennDot office at all.” Added the Philadelphia Inquirer: “In recent visits to the Department of Transportation’s offices, the witnesses said, they found long lines, short hours, and misinformed clerks, which made obtaining voter identification cumbersome, and in some cases impossible, for those who don’t have supporting documentation.”

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4. There is no voter fraud in Pennsylvania or nationally. At the beginning of the trial, the state offered this remarkable admission in a court filing: “There have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.” Essentially, the state conceded that its central rationale for the voter ID law—stopping “voter fraud”—turned out to be moot.

[brewens]

1. If they came up with a good system and were allowing four years

for people to get ID's, I wouldn't have so much of a problem with this. It would have to be free in some cases. They would have to make exceptions in others. Some people just will not be able to get a birth certificate. If your origins are somewhat uncertain, your parents weren't responsible people or just unlucky, you really might not know where to start looking.

In my case both parents are dead but my mom did give me my birth certificate. If that had not been the case, years ago when I lost my wallet I may have had some trouble. I had to get a new social security card. I think I would have known the hospital, one of two major ones in the city I was born. It would have been a hassle but I probably could have come up with it.
If I didn't have the birth certificate and didn't know for sure where I was born, I'd have to have relied on relatives to remember. That would be iffy for a lot of people.

In my girlfriends brothers case it was quite a challenge. He had been in jail and had his driving privileges revoked and lost his license. I asked him that if they thought they had the right guy locked up, why wouldn't the state/county come through with some documentation to help? For people like him, that kind of thing along with maybe matching school records should get them a waiver of some kind. I mean if the state/s had the right kid in school, and the right adult locked up and about any other matching evidence, why not issue an ID? It's not like they are possibly some deep cover agent ot terrorist.

[HopeHoops]

2. It's all about suppressing the likely Democratic party vote. Nothing else factors in.