Posted on 02/20/2006 10:10:54 AM PST by hipaatwo
On Presidents' Day at the National Constitution Center, Gov. Rendell announced his veto of a bill that would have required all voters to show identification when they go to the polls.
Rendell said that the bill, which passed the legislature last week on largely parti-line votes, would have the effect of disenfranchising those without easy access to identification, including nursing-home residents, displaced families, the very poor and those without a driver's license.
In addition, he said that the identification requirement, which now applies only to people voting at a polling place for the first time, would slow the voting process on election days, likely causing some would-be voters who are pressed for time to leave without casting ballots.
The governor said the bill also might be unconstitutional.
Eileen Melvin, who chairs the state Republican Party, called the bill "incredibly responsible," citing other provisions that would enhance access to voting for the disabled and for military personnel serving overseas. As for the identification requirement, she noted that people now need to show identification to write a check, board an airplane, even to walk into an office building.
An override of the veto is highly unlikely, given the relatively narrow margins by which the bill passed the state House and Senate and the solid Democratic opposition to the bill.
After all, for the 2004 election, Governor Rendell did not believe that the votes of our troops in Afghanistand and Iraq should have been counted, and worked day and night to prevent their votes from being counted.
The US Dept of Justice had to step in to try to get some of the Military Votes counted in Pennsylvania.
Governor Rendell believes that felons have more rights than our military personnel and showed that with his actions in the 2004 election...
Did you send that to the paper? If so I'm sure it won't get published.
Voter Identification is a death blow to the DemocRATic Party. 'RATS cannot get elected without voter fraud.
ping
You forgot illegals.
Every time an ineligible fradulent voter places a vote, I am disenfranchised. But Ed Rendell doesn't care about people like us...
The real reasons Rendell vetoed this bill:
"Governor Rendell doesn't want the people of Pennsylvania to know about the following provisions.:
Extends the deadline by which absentee ballots mailed from our soldiers overseas can be counted
- Under HB 1318, military ballots postmarked by the date of the election and received up to seven days after the election would be counted.
- Did you know that in 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice was forced to sue Governor Rendell to protect the right of military absentee voters to have their ballots counted?
Provides that all polling places be located in an environment free of intimidation and harassment.
- Currently, no such provision exists in Pennsylvania law.
- Did you know that in Philadelphia, the 1st Ward Democratic Headquarters serves as a polling place?
Ensures that all polling places are accessible to the elderly and disabled.
- Did you know that many polls in Pennsylvania are located in basements, private homes and other venues that are not handicapped accessible?
Increases voter confidence by ensuring that your vote will not be cancelled out by a fraudulent vote.
- The bill puts into place an identification requirement for voters
- Under the bill, acceptable identification includes both photo and non-photo ID, including utility bills, copies of a paycheck, or a voter registration card
- These can be obtained without significant effort and without any expense
- Did you know that the bi-partisan Carter-Baker Commission has recommended an ID requirement for voting to provide fairer elections?"
I've been voting at the same place for the last 6 years. Still asked for ID, I provide it with a smile.
Oh, Yeah. One other thing: Run, Lynn, run!
I got into an excellent email debate with the editor of the PI - but alas - not published.
------------------------
Tom,
It would make for a great right-leaning "Michael Moore" type movie. I can see him interviewing people on the street in the city where "everyone is registered to vote..." or "Excuse me sir, we know you are registered - look at the stats!" or talking to people in wards where 99.5% of the vote went to Kerry - "We only need to find 5 people who voted for Bush to make it 99.4%... As you pointed out, there may be reasons for the stats, but that never stopped a good satire.
I'll have to research the data on the burbs. From what I have seen, the data at least follows the logic of as more people move to an area, more people are registered to vote by about the same percentages...
Regards,
2banana
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxx
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 4:43 PM
To: 2banana
Subject: RE: City's big margin proves crucial to Kerry Pa. win
But my experience and my reporting tells me that these is not widespread voting fraud in philly. retail, yes. committee men absentee voting mrs. maguch, who died in july, etc. committeemen 'helping' old senile mrs. johnson fill out her ballot, etc.
But not an organized, mass movement to manufacture votes. I base this, as I said, on reporting and experience as a reporter. And also due to the fact that we (Our Computer Assited Reporting unit in particular) have kept a very close eye on the rolls this year -- looking for multiple registrations from a single home, matching them with death certificate lists, etc. They didn't turn up much.
PS when they ask the republicans for examples of buildings where there were multiple voters from same address, it turned out they were small homeless shelters run by Mercy nuns, who had registered the occupants to get them to participate.)
By the way, voter rgistration in the burbs has increased by more than 600,000 voters since 1984, but pop there has not. Could there be ghost in Berwyn?
thanks for your note.
-----Original Message-----
From: 2banana
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 12:24 PM
To: xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: City's big margin proves crucial to Kerry Pa. win
Tom,
Thanks for replying to my message, we could argue the numbers but some numbers and policies just jump out as being strange:
For instance:
1. Since 1995, Philadelphia's voter rolls have jumped 24 percent while at the same time that the city's population has declined by 13 percent.
2. According to the US Census, there has been no explosion in the black population:
2000 Black or African American in Philadelphia - 655,824 out of a total population of 1,517,550
1990 Black or African American in Philadelphia - 623,510 out of a total population of 1,585,577
1980 Black or African American in Philadelphia - 633,485 out of a total population of 1,688,210
3. I think we both seem to agree that the voter rolls are filled with "inactive" and inaccurate voters that can not be purged. This was all predicted when the federal "Motor Voter Law" was passed making it much easier for persons who are not eligible to vote to register and much more difficult to clean up the voter rolls. And I also think we both agree that this gives at least the appearance that the numbers are untrustworthy.
4. Philadelphia has a voting machine and city government that has been controlled by the same party for over 50 years and that is incapable of policing any corruption. Any "irregularities" in the voting would be dead last on the "to do" list, especially if the "irregularities" go the way of the person you want to win.
5. A few nights before the election, Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Andrea Mitchell and the mayor of Philadelphia were on Hardball. They were all laughing away about how the election was great for the economy of Philadelphia, and suggesting that there would plenty of "street money" around to "get out the vote." And these are the same people who are going to stop or report any kind of voter fraud?
I find it ironic that a country like Afghanistan (where I had a combat tour of duty), with no history of democracy, has a country wide and nearly fraud free election under the oversight of us - Americans. But we instituted a few rules like - you had to prove you are an Afghan, you had to get a voter ID, show the voter ID when you voted, your name had to match the voter roll, and you had to get your thumb stamped by permanent ink so you couldn't vote twice.
Kind Regards,
2banana
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 10:45 AM
To: 2banana
Subject: RE: City's big margin proves crucial to Kerry Pa. win
with all due respect, that allegation of massive voter fraud is bullshit.
the number of registered voters in phila. includes (according to the elxn buro) about 110,000 "inactive" voters who cannot not removed from the rolls until they have failed to vote in two federal elections. It also includes another 40,000 voters considered "inaccurate" by the elexn bureau, but not yet purged. (The buro is limited under law by when and how often it can purge. this is under the federal motor voter law.)
philly election officials say thise 150,000 are voters who have either moved, died, or otherwise opted out of the system.
the reason as to why the number of voters has stayed the same while the pop has decreased wud take a while to explain. it basically has to do with an increase in voter participation among blacks since 1983. the number of african americans registered to vote has gone from somewhere in the mid-50's in the 70's to the low 90's now. Black pop also has increased at the same time.
you can look at the numbers and believe what you want to believe, but the facts -- and investigations by this paper -- do not bear out the "massive vote fraud" allegation.
tf
-----Original Message-----
From: 2banana
To: xxxxxx
Sent: 11/10/2004 8:25 AM
Subject: RE: City's big margin proves crucial to Kerry Pa. win
Dear Tom Ferrick Jr.:
I am glad you are a number's geek. So am I - see below.
Best Regards,
2banana
Original LTTE
"those without a driver's license"
CODE for "illegal aliens voting for Democrats"
Don't forget Tastykakes!
I have to show a photo ID everytime I vote in Florida and it should be a nationwide requirement.
s oppose positive voter identification, how else can the dead vote and the Democs hope to win.
There is also massive double voting. The Democrats appear to have bussed in people from out of state to vote in states with close elections. Also, liberal faculty in colleges organized and encouraged students to vote twice, once in their home state and once in their college state, or sometimes in two locations within the same state.
Also, a lot of Philadelphians apparently were bussed across the river into Trenton, New Jersey, to vote a second time there in the election that Schundler lost.
LOLOL! Isn't that a bit like the fox investigating if there are chickens missing from the henhouse? Nothing to see here...let's all moveon.
Let's say you are a young Republican who has just moved into a gentrifying neighborhood in north Philly. You go to vote and see nothing but Democrat operatives, big burly guys in AFL-CIO hats, polling place in somebody's house, and somebody outside checking in every voter and eyeballing you up and down as you go in. This precinct has voted 100% Democrat in the past 10 elections. You think they are not going to know who was the one Republican vote? Do you risk having your tires slashed or worse? Or do you just slink away?
There was an eyewitness report in 2004 of a Republican poll watcher having a gun drawn on him at a Philly voting place. Also reports of busloads of union thugs coming in from New York City.
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