"New voter ID laws carry a political agenda" July 09, 2012
Mike Turzai, the Pennsylvania House majority leader, is honest if nothing else. His exact statement to a crowd of state Republicans — that the state’s new voter ID law “is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania” — was the most truthful accounting of why the party is pushing for allegedly more stringent voting rules across the nation. This is not about combating voter fraud, a claim that has never been substantiated, but about limiting the participation of people likely to vote for the other party.
Pennsylvania’s new rules will require a government photo ID to be able to vote, which disproportionately burdens those without cars: the poor, elderly, and minority voters who trend Democratic. Students without drivers’ licenses will also be stuck....
Improving voting systems is an important agenda but the problem is not voter fraud, it is negligence. The nation’s voting infrastructure is antiquated, and an embarrassment for a nation that upholds democratic engagement to the rest of the world.
The world stopped buying our fraud years ago, sorry.
New programs for allowing electronic ballots, creating enhanced voter-registration databases, and guaranteeing ballot security are all legitimate efforts to improve the integrity of the voting system.
The Globe sees the machines as an answer?
But laws like Pennsylvania’s aren’t about the integrity of voting. As Turzai was clear to remind us, they are about who wins elections. He should be applauded for making it so clear.
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"750,000 in Pa. may be forced to sit out election" July 07, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — More than 750,000 Pennsylvanians may be denied a chance to vote in November unless they can come up with an acceptable form of identification, a tally released by the state suggests.
In a move lawmakers said would deter fraud at the polls, the Republican-led Legislature passed a law in March requiring voters to have a photo ID to obtain a ballot. A comparison of registration lists and state Transportation Department records showed 758,939 people don’t have either a driver’s license or an alternative state ID, the secretary of the commonwealth said.
Backed by Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, the law was enacted as similar measures in Republican-led states drew criticism from Democrats who say they disenfranchise minority, poor, and young voters. Those groups have tended to support Democrats. A voter ID law in Texas has been blocked by the Justice Department, while in Florida, which also has a photo ID requirement, federal officials have sued to halt state attempts to bar noncitizens from voting.
In New Hampshire, Governor John Lynch on Friday allowed a bill requiring photo identification to become law without his signature, but he says he hopes the Legislature will revisit the issue.
Paint New Hampshire in Romney red.
‘‘There is a real risk that poor people and minority voters, among others, will be discouraged from participating,’’ said Daniel Tokaji, who teaches at Ohio State University’s law school and helps direct its election-law center. ‘‘These laws are likely to have a greater impact on Democratic- leaning groups of voters.’’
In Pennsylvania, unless voters have an acceptable alternative, such as a military ID, or obtain an ID before Nov. 6, as much as 9 percent of the state’s electorate may be denied a chance to cast a ballot in the presidential election. The swing state went for Barack Obama, a Democrat, 55 percent to 44 percent for Republican John McCain in 2008.
Obama carried the state by 620,478 votes, fewer than the number who may be barred from the polls Nov. 6.
Republicans taking control or boosting majorities in state capitols drove ‘‘more restrictive’’ election laws, Tokaji said. At the start of 2011, as legislatures elected in November 2010 took their seats, only Georgia and Indiana required a photo ID to vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.
By November, at least 30 states will require voters to show identification to obtain a ballot, according to the conference, a nonprofit research organization. Most won’t require a photo ID.
Three more — Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin — have enacted such laws and are in varying stages of implementing them or litigating challenges.
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"Indiana and Georgia discarded 1,200 ’08 votes" July 09, 2012
As more states adopt strict voter ID rules, a review of temporary ballots from Indiana and Georgia, which first implemented stringent standards, found that more than 1,200 such votes were tossed during the 2008 general election.
During sparsely attended primaries this year in Georgia, Indiana, and Tennessee, the states with the toughest ID laws, hundreds more ballots were blocked.
The numbers suggest that the legitimate votes rejected by the laws are far more numerous than are the cases of fraud that advocates of the rules say they are trying to prevent. Thousands more votes could be in jeopardy for this November, when more states with larger populations aim to have similar rules in place, according to an Associated Press review.
More than two dozen states have some form of ID requirement, and 11 of those passed new rules over the past two years, largely at the urging of Republicans who say they want to prevent fraud.
Democrats and voting rights groups fear that ID laws could suppress votes among people who may not typically have a driver’s license, and disproportionately affect the elderly, poor, and minorities.
Although the number of votes is a small percentage of the overall total, they have the potential to sway a close election. The 2000 presidential race was decided by a 537 votes in Florida.
Supporters of the laws cite cases of fraud as a reason that states need to do more to secure elections, but fraud appears to be rare. The Republican National Lawyers Association last year published a report that identified some 400 election fraud prosecutions over a decade across the entire country, fewer than one per state per year.
Yeah, right, the system is fine.
Indiana, Georgia, and Tennessee require that voters provide a photo ID at the polls. Failing that, voters can use a temporary ballot that can be verified later.
Pennsylvania is putting a similar law in place for the November election. Kansas has comparable rules. Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin are moving in that direction for this year, if new rules survive court challenges and win federal approval.
Paint 'em all red.
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Related: Romney Will Steal Rust Belt
How Mitt Romney Will Steal Florida
Wow, that map is starting to look awfully red except around the edges.
