Nearly a Million Voters Could be Disenfranchised in Pennsylvania

Nearly a Million Voters Could be Disenfranchised in Pennsylvania

A newly-released report suggests that voter ID laws in Pennsylvania could disenfranchise nearly 10 percent of that state’s population, or 750,000 people. The Republican-backed legislation was signed into law earlier this year.

This gives you an idea about the GOP’s scandalous an dastardly (and unpatriotic, I might add) campaign to suppress minority voting rights. The Republican-led Congress also made the unprecedented move to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in June in a shameful charade. Not coincidentally, Holder fought hard to prevent the enactment of legislation that would make it more difficult for citizens to cast their votes. Of course, Republicans used the flimsily and scarcely believable excuse that Holder was withholding documents from an ill-fated illegal arms deal in Mexico — something they cared little about but it was the best way to try to get Holder out of office — but this tactic did work for it prevented Holder from going after states who are trying to limit the minority vote.


Check out what the Huffington Post reported about the Pennsylvania law:


Pennsylvanians will be required to show government-issued photo identification in order to cast votes in November, thanks to a GOP-supported voter ID law signed by Gov. Tom Corbett (R) earlier this year. While supporters argued that it was a simple measure meant to combat voter fraud, figures released this week show that the law may affect more than 750,000 Pennsylvanians who don’t currently possess identification cards issued by the state Department of Transportation.

According to the report, which compared voter registration rolls with transportation department ID databases, more than 758,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania have no driver’s license — a primary form of identification. That’s 9.2 percent of the state’s 8.2 million voters, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. In Philadelphia, the state’s biggest city, that number balloons to 18 percent of the city’s total voting populat
ion — around 186,830 registered voters, according to the newspaper.

The Corbett administration maintained earlier that 99 percent of Pennsylvania voters already had proper identification, and therefore wouldn’t need to take additional steps to cast their ballots. The voter ID law does allow for the use of other forms of identification, including U.S. passports, student ID cards with expiration dates and military ID. Because of that, state officials have shown little concern over the latest numbers.

— terry shropshire

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join our Newsletter

Sign up for Rolling Out news straight to your inbox.

Read more about:
Also read