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Pennsylvania's highest court on Tuesday told a lower court judge to stop a tough new law requiring voters to show photo identification from taking effect in this year's presidential election if he finds voters cannot easily get ID cards or if he thinks they will be disenfranchised.
(CNN) -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court sent a controversial voter ID law back to a lower court on Tuesday to assess the availability of alternative forms of identification and whether the new law disenfranchises voters.
The high court said the state's Commonwealth Court has until October 2 to file its response, according to court documents.
"Overall, we are confronted with an ambitious effort on the part of the General Assembly to bring the new identification procedure into effect within a relatively short time frame and an implementation process which has by no means been seamless in light of the serious operational constraints faced by the executive branch," the high court said Tuesday.
The law's opponents said the measure undermines the ability of registered voters to vote and that it was passed without sufficient evidence of prior identity fraud.
It is good to see the courts are knocking down the Republican's voter suppression efforts. In Ohio they literally passed a law making it legal to do early voting in Republican dominated counties but made it illegal to do early voting in Democratic leaning counties. Fortunately the court tossed that partisan BS out while the right wing media tried to pretend it was some how something to do with veteran voting rights when it clearly had absolutely nothing to do with that. The dishonesty and just out right criminal behavior by the Republicans during this election has been breath taking.
We sure do not want to reduce fraudulent voting. That would be so sad. To think that you could not express your dead grandma's convictions in the voting booth; what a horrible thought.
We sure do not want to reduce fraudulent voting. That would be so sad. To think that you could not express your dead grandma's convictions in the voting booth; what a horrible thought.
That 0.00005% national election fraud rate sure is a problem.
Anyone who thinks that GOP voter ID initiatives are solely to prevent fraud without any intentional disenfranchising is naive, stupid or delusional. Preventing eligible Americans from voting borders on treasonous.
It almost doesn't exist so using it as an excuse to disinfranchise ~1 million people in a single state is clearly over kill and in fact is just a cover for old fashioned Republican voter suppression attempts. The Republicans are just the party of evil. There is no other honest way to put it.
That 0.00005% national election fraud rate sure is a problem.
Anyone who thinks that GOP voter ID initiatives are solely to prevent fraud without any intentional disenfranchising is naive, stupid or delusional. Preventing eligible Americans from voting borders on treasonous.
What would supporting Orgs that have been caught committing fraud be? You know like Acorn?
That 0.00005% national election fraud rate sure is a problem.
Anyone who thinks that GOP voter ID initiatives are solely to prevent fraud without any intentional disenfranchising is naive, stupid or delusional. Preventing eligible Americans from voting borders on treasonous.
I honestly would like to see the Republicans pushing these measure to go to prison because it is completely obvious that their ONLY intent is to prevent legal voters from voting. There simply is no other valid reason for them attempting to do this. Voter fraud just doesn't exist in any appreciable numbers in this country.
What would supporting Orgs that have been caught committing fraud be? You know like Acorn?
You confuse voter registration errors with voter fraud. Every voter registration org has checks and balances to weed out invalid registrations. Weak sauce.
We sure do not want to reduce fraudulent voting. That would be so sad. To think that you could not express your dead grandma's convictions in the voting booth; what a horrible thought.
This would be true if there actually was a big voter fraud problem. There isn't.
"It is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls."
The Brennen Center for Justice, a non-partisian institute that focuses on democracy and justice, did studies in three states to assess the incidence of voter fraud, and the highest incidence they found was in Wisconsin, with a whopping rate of 0.0006%. Yeah, there's a real problem all right. And Pennsylvania attempted to ram this law through without even bothering to do a study to see if there was a problem. Now...tell us again how this isn't purely political.
The GOP, inventing "solutions" to problems that don't exist...
Voters will be required to show an acceptable photo ID on Election Day. All photo IDs must contain an expiration date that is current, unless noted otherwise. Voter's names on their photo IDs do not need to exactly match their voter registration, but the names must substantially conform. Acceptable IDs include:
* Photo IDs issued by the U.S. Federal Government or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (including the Department of State Voter ID Card)
* PA Driver’s License or Non-driver’s License photo ID (IDs are valid for voting purposes 12 months past expiration date)
* Valid U.S. passport
* U.S. military ID- active duty and retired military (a military or veteran’s ID must designate an expiration date or designate that the expiration date is indefinite). Military dependents’ ID must contain an expiration date
* Employee photo ID issued by Federal, PA, PA County or PA Municipal government
* Photo ID from an accredited PA public or private institution of higher learning, including colleges, universities, seminaries, community colleges and other two-year colleges
* Photo ID issued by a PA care facility, including long-term care facilities, assisted living residences or personal care homes
If you do not have ID one will be provided free:
Quote:
If you do not have one of these IDs, and require one for voting purposes, you may be entitled to get one FREE OF CHARGE at a PennDOT Driver License Center. To find the Driver License Center nearest you, and learn what supporting documentation you will need to get a photo ID visit PennDOT's Voter ID Website or call the Department of State's Voter ID Hotline at 1-877-VotesPA (868-3772).
Last but not least if you do not have ID on election day:
Quote:
NO ONE legally entitled to vote will be denied the right to do so. If you do not have a photo ID, or are indigent and unable to obtain one without payment of a fee, you may cast a provisional ballot, and will have six days to provide your photo ID and/or an affirmation to your county elections office to have your ballot count. If you have a religious objection to being photographed you can still vote by presenting a valid without-photo driver’s license or a valid without-photo ID card issued by PennDOT.
Case dismissed.
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