Penn. Officials Still Pursue Photo ID Law, Despite Lack of Voter Impersonation

By Erin Ferns Lee August 8, 2011
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Pennsylvania voters and advocates are concerned with the commonwealth’s latest effort to conform to the Republican-led trend to pass restrictive election laws; a ploy that many think is designed to suppress turnout in 2012. While supporters of a proposed photo ID law contend that it is just to combat voter impersonation, an election fraud expert says that problem just does not occur enough to warrant such blockades to democracy.

In September, the legislature will consider a bill that requires all voters to present photo ID before casting a ballot, forcing those without sufficient ID to vote provisionally (subsequently, they must present themselves to the county courthouse with proper ID within six days of the election). “Free” photo ID would be available to certain voters.

“Andy Hoover, legislative director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, said his group believes that the Republican-controlled legislatures are passing the voter ID measures in order to give the GOP an edge in the 2012 presidential race,” wrote Tim Joyce at the York Daily Record.

“Groups that were a big part of the Democratic support base in 2008, including minorities and students, are the ones least likely to be carrying government-issued IDs with them when they go to vote, Hoover said. Students often carry just school-issued IDs, and minorities are the largest urban population and often don’t drive, he added.”

Chicago election law attorney, Richard Means, agrees that the rush to pass photo ID requirements is just a ploy to give the GOP an edge in the presidential election.  Means says he was in charge of the notorious election fraud prosecutions at the county prosecutor’s office in Chicago during the 1970s.

“He said that was a time and a place virtually synonymous with voter fraud,” wrote Joyce:

“Means said he got convictions in more than 100 cases of voter fraud, but he can count on one hand the number of times he saw it in the form of individuals misrepresenting themselves at the polls. That method is just too logistically difficult, he said. It would involve getting individuals willing to risk a felony charge, who probably wouldn’t get away with it anyway because of election judges manning the polls who are likely to spot the ruse. The chance of getting enough people like that to make a difference in a race is very low, Means said.

Means said most of the voter scams he saw involved crooked elections judges, or people higher up the chain fraudulently counting the number of votes.”

To follow Pennsylvania photo ID bill, HB 934, subscribe to Project Vote’s weekly Election Legislation digest. Weekly reports commence September 5.