Posted on 05/12/2014 4:45:29 AM PDT by Cricket24
Two years after signing a dreadful law that was designed to suppress voting by some of the state's most vulnerable citizens, Gov. Tom Corbett has accepted Judge Bernard McGinley's sound judgment that the Voter ID law is unconstitutional and illegal.
Mr. Corbett announced Wednesday that he will not appeal the decision. Nor will he and the legislative architects of the blindly partisan law try to resurrect it for the November election.
Pennsylvania's Voter ID law was part of a wave of such legislation in Republican-majority state legislatures. Some of those laws met constitutional muster. The Department of Justice signed off on Virginia's law after a required review under the Voting Rights Act, for example, because the government there ensured that every voter received the needed identification.
In Pennsylvania, even before testimony in court, Republican advocates inadvertently revealed the nefarious purpose of the statute. Rep. Mike Turzai, House Republican majority leader, told the Republican State Committee in 2012 that it would help ensure GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's victory in Pennsylvania. The law was a purely partisan exercise meant to suppress votes of older, young and minority voters who tend to vote Democratic and are most likely not to have the limited types of identification prescribed by the law.
As testimony in the court case demonstrated how tens of thousands of voters could be disenfranchised, and that the purported need to curb voter fraud was a non-existent problem, the administration back-pedaled.
Now, with the law itself identified by a toe tag, lawmakers should turn to true reform that can expand access to voting while ensuring the continuing integrity of the system.
The state should move to universal online registration. That not only would make it easier for people to become voters, but would eliminate duplicate registrations. When people move from one county to another and register to vote, their names temporarily are carried in both counties. That's not fraud; there's no evidence of people actually voting in multiple counties. But clean voter rolls are desirable and easy to achieve.
Pennsylvania also should adopt other reforms to make it easier to vote, rather than conjuring up new restrictions. Those should include same-day registration rather than closing registration a month ahead of the election.
Many other states use many techniques to make voting convenient. Pennsylvania, the cradle of American democracy, should start playing catch-up.
Registering and voting should be harder.
What is this thing called a “newspaper” of which you speak?
Is it some kind of ancient obsolete communication device?
There is nothing fundamentally wrong in making someone prove who they are when they vote. Anyone that tells you there is has a basic desire to cheat other people out of their right to equal treatment and consideration under the law.
PA surrender to Dem voter fraud.
I was torn about voting for Corbett. After giving $500 million to the unions and raising our gasoline tax to pay for it, I just wasn’t certain. After this debacle on voter ID, I am now certain I won’t vote for him.
“Registering and voting should be harder.”
I absolutely agree. You can’t cash a check without some form of identification. You should have to make an effort to vote, as it is more likely that if you are motivated you will have some knowledge of the issues. Same day registration should never be allowed, as it does not allow time to check the validity of the registration.
On the other hand, if they want to push for easier registration and voting, then I would push for very steep penalties for proven voter fraud (at least 2 years in prison - mandatory, and a permanent loss of voting rights).
I would stop having voter registration drives that allow anybody to register voters. Voter registration should be done by the secretary of state office or county clerk office.
Absentee voting should be restricted to those who can prove they won’t be able to vote on election day for real reasons. I’m thinking military, shut ins, people who travel for work.
Voter ID voter ID Voter ID, and I would get rid of early voting.
I personally would bar the release of any numbers till the polls have closed in Hawaii.
Further, if they want to talk about ‘disenfranchisement’, then they need to recognize that every fraudulent vote dilutes and therefore disenfranchises a qualified voter’s vote.
The dim talking point pops up again. Has anybody investigated this?
I would be willing to bet that somewhere buried deep down in that healthcare abortion of a bill is some provision for voter registration.
Explain how people who are too challenged to get a free ID are going to get online?
Yeah, I know. Acorn will do it for them.
I remember the world of my youth where ‘disfranchised’ was all that was needed to describe it. Or where people didn’t ‘conversate’ but ‘talked’ or, the more high-brow, ‘conversed.’
Our society is being dumbed down and subject to pretentious fronting altogether by people who should be wearing a safety helmet in my opinion.
You can’t reason with these people, nor can you force them to see the logic of anything they are hell bent against if it goes against the true goals of their political ideology. You can only defeat them however you can.
“You can’t reason with these people, nor can you force them to see the logic of anything they are hell bent against if it goes against the true goals of their political ideology. You can only defeat them however you can.”
Unfortunately, this is true.
Reason, principles and objective rules of right and wrong have no place in their thinking.
It’s all about what gets the “right people” in power to make a heaven on earth.
It’s a worldview problem. They believe lies.
Since the democrat choices are so much better?
Two Democrats in an election, I will not be complicit and vote for either.
Great point you made. How about photo Social Security cards and a national photo recognition scan for duplicates?
Democrats want illegals to vote and to vote often. It’s how they steal the vote from someone like me.
Democrats are criminals.
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