Response to PA SoC photo ID stance

Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele: Photo ID protects integrity of every vote.

Text of PA SoC Aichele's August 23, 2011, press release with comments in red by Madeline Rawley:

Lancaster – Requiring Pennsylvania voters to provide photo identification will protect the right of every legal voter to have their vote carry the weight it should, Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele said today.

Speaking to the 2011 Pennsylvania County Election Officials Conference in Lancaster, Aichele said requiring voters to provide photo identification will make it harder to commit voter fraud in Pennsylvania.

“My duty, and yours, is to protect the integrity of every vote,” said Aichele, Pennsylvania’s chief election official, explaining the Corbett Administration’s support for the photo ID concept. “We must insure every citizen entitled to vote can do so, but also prevent anyone not entitled to this right from diluting legal voters’ ballots, by casting illegal votes.”

Aichele said voter turnout in states such as Georgia, with strict photo ID laws upheld by the courts, has increased across racial, ethnic and socio-economic lines.* In the 2008 election! Not evidence for typical election.

She noted arrests in the past three years of workers for the group known as ACORN on federal election fraud charges in Pittsburgh, and the submission of 8,000 fraudulent ACORN-collected voter registration forms in Philadelphia, as evidence voter fraud is an issue in Pennsylvania.* This is voter registration fraud, which the PHOTO ID bill could not stop.

Aichele also pointed to a 1994 state Senate election in Philadelphia as a reason the Corbett Administration supports additional voter safeguards for absentee ballots. PHOTO ID BILL COULD NOT PREVENT THIS:
“A federal judge found absentee-ballot fraud so massive in this election, he actually overturned the results, and awarded the seat to the losing candidate,” Aichele said. “Fraud in this case effectively disenfranchised every voter in that district.”

A Department of State analysis shows 99 percent of eligible voters already have an acceptable photo ID, and providing free photo IDs to every other eligible voter, should they all request one, would cost just over $1 million.* No source for this number given. House Republican Appropriations Committee report says: “Data provided by PennDOT indicates that only 3.9% of the voting population does not hold a state-issued ID. Applying that number to all registered voters (8,166,393 as of April 11) to the cost to produce a photo ID ($13.50) totals $4,315,417. Currently 82.4% of the adult population in Pennsylvania are registered voters.

“Today, you must show a photo ID to cash a check, board a plane, and check into a hotel,” Aichele said. “Requiring a photo ID for something as important as voting will not burden anyone, but will protect the rights of legal voters in Pennsylvania.”* It does burden some seniors who no longer drive and do not have a license, persons with disabilities, students, urban people who have no need for a license, married women who have changed their name on their drivers’ licenses but not their voter registration etc.

"Pennsylvania doesn't need new voter ID law"

By Kathryn Boockvar, Morning Call, April 7, 2009. "The state Senate State Government Committee recently tabled a bill that would require photo IDs for all voters after scores of voters across the state expressed concerns about the burdens imposed by the bill. Some senators have expressed interest in revising the bill and giving it further consideration, but the Senate should listen to the voters and throw out the bill altogether." [continued>>]

PA photo ID bill (SB 514) reprieve

Senator Charles McIlhinney (Bucks, PA) writes, "Given the concerns that have been expressed on this legislation, I have decided to delay further action on this bill until we have an opportunity to thoroughly review and discuss this legislation to address many of these concerns." Full text of the letter. Thank you, Senator McIlhinney! See also "Voter ID bill taken off table," Intelligencer, March 24, 2009.

Proposed Pennsylvania “Photo ID” Bill

Scoop: Proposed Pennsylvania “Photo ID” Bill, March 20, 2009. "A coalition of voting rights organizations expressed alarm over a proposed Pennsylvania bill that seeks to require all voters to show photo identification at every election. The voting rights advocates, including Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization with voter protection efforts in Pennsylvania, strongly oppose the legislation, and urge state policymakers to challenge the bill and hold public hearings before taking any action to move this legislation forward." Read more.

Tell your state senator to oppose photo ID bill

The Coalition for Voting Integrity urges all Pennsylvanians to contact their state senators and ask them to oppose SB 514. Senator Charles McIlhinney can be reached toll-free in Harrisburg at 1-866-739-8600 or at 1-717-787-7305 or cmcilhinney@pasen.gov; Doylestown office: 22 So. Main St., Suite 200, Doylestown, PA 18901, 215-489-5000, fax 215-489-5200; other senators at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/find.cfm.

PA LWV "strongly opposed" to voter ID bill

A letter outlining the strong opposition of the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters to voter ID Senate Bill 514 was addressed to the Honorable Charles McIlhinney, chair of the Senate State Government Committee, and hand-delivered to its members on March 19, 2009. Text of the letter. Senate Bill 514.

PA voter ID bill opposed

Groups announce opposition to voter ID requirement, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 18, 2009. The twenty or so groups "include the ACLU, the Black Political Empowerment Project, Common Cause, Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, the NAACP National Voter Fund, Just Harvest, the Disability Voting Coalition and the SEIU State Council" as well as the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and the Coalition for Voting Integrity.