PA To Lower Requirements For Voter Photo ID

[CatWoman]

The Pennsylvania Department of State announced Friday that the state will offer a new photo identification card that will spare voters from having to obtain birth certificates and Social Security cards in order to vote next November.

The new voter ID cards, good for voting purposes only, will be offered at PennDot driver licensing centers beginning the last week in August, to registered voters who can provide a date of birth, a Social Security number and two proofs of residency, like utility bills.

Until the new cards are available, PennDot will continue to demand a Social Security card, a birth certificate, and two proofs of residency to receive its official nondriver ID.

Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele announced the eased document requirements just days ahead of a July 25 proceeding in Commonwealth Court court on whether the state's new voter ID law will disenfranchise voters throughout the state.

"We believe these new cards will be a safety net for those who may not currently possess all of the documents they need for a standard photo ID from PennDot," Aichele said in a press release. "Our goals are to continue making voters aware of the new voter ID law and helping those who may not have proper identification obtain it."

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/pa-lower-requirements-voter-photo-id?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

[HopeHoops]

1. How about the post office? You can get a fucking passport at many of them.

[Live and Learn]

2. How does this help the elderly

that are too sick to go get a picture taken? Will they be making home calls?

How about those that work hours that don't allow them to get to the dmv during its hours? Will they be opening for longer hours to accommodate them?

And lastly, will all of this be free, including access to the needed documentation?

Anything less is voter disenfranchisement!

[freeandequalpa]

3. Sign of desperation

Think about what is going on here. A group of voters who do not have one of the approved forms of photo ID under the new law sued to challenge it. They note that, under PennDOT's rules, in order to obtain the "free" photo ID card offered by PennDOT, they have to provide a copy of their birth certificate. But several of the plaintiffs cannot provide a copy of their birth certificate because the states in which they were born decades ago cannot find them. Therefore, not only do they not currently have one of the approved forms of photo ID, but they cannot get one, meaning they are disenfranchised by the law.

So what does the Commonwealth do? One week before the lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial, it announces for the first time in the pretrial brief that it filed in court that it will create a new ID card that people without birth certificates can obtain. It then argues that the plaintiffs are not disenfranchised by the law because they can get one of these new ID cards that did not exist at the time they filed suit and that will not even be available until the end of August.

In other words, this is a Hail Mary attempt by the Commonwealth, which clearly is concerned that it is going to lose the lawsuit next week, to salvage the photo ID law. In fact, the Commonwealth went so far as to concede in its pretrial brief that "significant barriers to the acquisition of a photo ID to vote” existed before they came up with this new ID card. You can read more about it here: http://freeandequalpa.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/the-parties-pretrial-briefs/

Also, note that the Commonwealth admitted in writing that there is no evidence of in-person voter impersonation fraud, which is the only kind of fraud that a law requiring voters to show ID at the polls possibly could prevent: http://freeandequalpa.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/the-commonwealth-stipulation/. But don't even get me started on that . . .