Posted on 08/26/2002 7:25:59 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel
IN A panic that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Rendell might have electoral coattails, it's not surprising that Pennsylvania Republicans would try to suppress Democratic turnout.
What is surprising is the ugly and cynical way they're going about it.
Supposedly in response to voter fraud, House Republicans passed a bill that would require registered voters to provide either their county voter identification cards or photo identification before being allowed to vote. It goes to the Senate in the fall.
We don't think it's a coincidence that the people most likely to be affected by the requirements - the elderly, poor and minorities - are among those most likely to vote Democratic. They also are the least likely to have driver's licenses or passports. Getting a nondriver's-license ID costs money ($10) and time (sometimes several hours' wait at the PennDOT office) and sets up a two-tiered, unequal system for exercising the franchise.
The Republicans' scheme has been compared to the "poll tax" levied in the old South to prevent blacks from voting. In some ways, it's worse: combing an extra cost with bureaucratic barriers. Either way, it's un-American.
Exactly why are the elderly, poor and minorities more likely than anyone else to have lost or discarded their voter registration card?
They also are the least likely to have driver's licenses or passports. Getting a nondriver's-license ID costs money ($10)
But a voter registration card is free and can be obtained with a simple phone call or a letter.
Seems like if someone was really serious about voting and not just doing it to get the ten dollars for riding the church bus and voting the straight dem ticket, they’d have their voter registration card.
Isn’t this really more about stopping serial voters and the deceased from placing ballots?
Owl_Eagle
” WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
While the Filtydelphia Inquirer is so intent about accusing Republicans of being "ugly and cynical", perhaps they can write a litle story explaining how Filtydelphia had more than 100% of it's registered voting population vote in the 2000 elections - overwhelmingly Demoncrat, of course!
This author's objections are about the most frivolous I've ever seen. It's appalling how some people are such apologists for vote fraud.
Elderly -- How is easy is it to get Social Security and/or Medicaid benefits without a photo ID? Anyone know?
Poor -- How easy is it to get Welfare payments without a photo ID? Anyone know?
Minorities -- In what way are they targeted? This legislation seems suitably color-blind. Are we to believe that they getting picked-on because the rabble-rousers say they are getting picked-on? Al Sharpton says so?
Not to come across as defending voter fraud, but that very commonly quoted statistic simply isn’t true. Yes, there’s certainly voter fraud, and PLENTY of it. In fact, the Mayoral election was almost certainly swiped from Republican Sam Katz.
However, when we play fast and loose with the truth, we loose credibility in the eyes of anyone who does some elementary investigation. It was actually 54.73% which is still laughable, but it’s also very easy to disprove the assertion that more than 100% of it’s registered voting population voted in the 2000 elections.
The real point here is that the voter registration total is 98.6% of the population that is eligible to vote. Obviously this is due to the fact that the voter roles haven’t experienced a real purge in the last 20 years.
Owl_Eagle
” WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
Nice move. Of course these idiots think voting rights security is a freakin poll tax ...
Most people without a driver-liscese alread have a nondriver's license ID as they do need proof of age to buy booze. I am not saying poor people are booze hounds but just about everyone in the America enjoys a beer after work.
If people actually ever experienced “after work”, they probably wouldn’t be poor in the first place! ;-)
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
I stand corrected in the "over 100%" assertion concerning registered voters. Apparently that is an urban legend too easily believed, especially in the case of Filthydelphia.
Perhaps I would have been more accurate in stating "there is a 100% likelihood massive voter fraud occurs every single election in Filthydelphia!".
No doubt it is also accurate it is "100% likely the mobster Demoncrat politician Ed Rendell has always been the recipient of it's largess!".
But most of the time you're in and out in under 20 minutes?
Also, why don't the House Republicans cut the price for a nondriver's-license ID to an insignificant $1 prior to the elections?
Don't they realize that they're embarassing themselves in the eyes of any objective observer?
Maybe they do, and that's one of the benefits of the "Editorial Board" writing it. No single person can be shamed by being held responsible for this nonsense.
I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say it does nothing. True, serial voters can just show up at different polling places with counterfeit voter registration cards and ward leaders can add a few dozen votes to the machine before the polls open. However, at least it will put a kink in the plans of any young white dem male who was planning on showing up to vote for Ovella Rufton.
Owl_Eagle
”Unleash the Hogs of Peace.”
P.J. O’Rourke Parliament of Whores
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