A wave of new voting restrictions have been struck down by the courts in recent weeks. A major exception is Pennsylvania, where Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, a Republican, declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the state’s controversial voter ID law on August 15.
Today in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court convened in a packed, standing-room-only courtroom to revisit the law. A decision is expected in the next few weeks to determine whether Pennsylvania will be the largest swing state with a new, restrictive voter ID law on the books for the 2012 election.
And, in case the court goes the wrong way:
You know you’re in a fledgling campaign office the moment you step off the street and into one of the plainest buildings in Germantown, a mostly black Philadelphia neighborhood that contains several Colonial landmarks. Along garish, peach-colored walls are maps of every inch of the city: council districts, wards, divisions, recreation centers. Mismatched tables sit empty, waiting for soon-to-be-installed phones that volunteers will use to call number after number. In one corner of the back office, there’s even a double megaphone ready to perch atop a van and spread the message.
Rather than touting a candidate, though, this campaign’s volunteers will be spreading news that they hate: Hundreds of thousands of registered voters in Philadelphia, and hundreds of thousands more across the state, are in danger of losing their voice in the November election.
Welcome to the world of the Pennsylvania Voter ID Coalition, made up of 140 organizations—churches, labor unions, civic groups—which began training volunteers in July. The group’s job is to let voters know that, thanks to a law passed in March, they will have to carry a government-issued picture ID to the polls to ensure that their vote counts. The coalition will also help voters who lack the proper ID to acquire one—a process that is, in some cases, time-consuming and complicated.
They’re the Committee of Seventy and this is their site.
Linda Featheringill
Good for the Gang of 70!
We’re going to have to fight for Every. Single. Vote.
Ya know, it shouldn’t be that way. But it is.
JPL
Kay, you are doing such outstanding work and I thank you for keeping us informed. John was lucky that you agreed to front page here.
Villago Delenda Est
It’s good that they’re out there, now, preparing for the worst.
This law is an abomination, with one intent only: to deprive the “wrong” people of their right to vote, in order to do everything possible to insure the “wrong” candidates have the most difficult struggle possible to win office.
Maude
@JPL:
Amen.
MaryJane
Kay, thanks for letting us know about the Committee of Seventy. I sent a small donation to these warriors for justice, maybe enough for a few pots of coffee and some sandwiches. goddamm liar Republicans and their cheating dirty tricks are really pissing me off.
Grung_e_Gene
I concur with JPL. Awesome work.
Dennis SGMM
I’m beginning to wonder what I and my forebears, back to 1775, fought for. What kind of fucked up country stands idly by while its citizens are deprived of the franchise that is one of their most fundamental rights?
raven
@Dennis SGMM: You are?
amk
Amazing it had to come to this in the world’s ‘oldest democracy’.
You’re angel, Kay.
Ruckus
@Dennis SGMM:
This.
Makes me question why I volunteered instead of asking for political asylum in Canada or Sweden. I wonder what my life would have been like had I made that choice at twenty.
Chris
@Dennis SGMM:
To be fair, dude, the revolution didn’t guarantee universal suffrage even by the standards of the era. You had to wait until Andrew Jackson for that and women and nonwhites still weren’t covered.
raven
@Ruckus: Twenty? I did 34 months, 25 overseas and got out 2 months before I turned 20!
? Martin
@Dennis SGMM:
A chickenshit one.
raven
@? Martin: Same fucking country it’s always been.
? Martin
@Ruckus: My dad chose 4 years underwater. He’s well to the left of Bernie Sanders now, so I’m glad he stayed. He’s helping. It’d be harder for the rest of us if you guys weren’t here.
TenguPhule
One where one of the two major political parties is completely and utterly batshit insane and belongs in a mass grave instead of dictating policy.
PurpleGirl
With all the voter suppression being tried, I decided to check my registration in NYS. I’m active. All the information (address, etc.) is correct. Even if your state isn’t in play for suppression, I think every one should check their status and the status of election law. We need to stay on top of election law.
Citizen_X
@? Martin:
Well, when your historical examples are the Jim Crow-era south, and apartheid-era South Africa, then the obvious answer becomes “a white supremacist one.”
raven
@? Martin: UDT or Silent Service?
eta or Mortgage holder?
redbeardjim
Speaking of judges and voting, Kay, have you heard anything about the hearing that Husted was ordered to attend? Wasn’t that supposed to take place a couple days ago?
JPL
@raven: uhoh… just saw the score and the time left.
jp7505a
At last, something that liberals and conservatives can agree on – according to Rick Santorium at the values summit ‘smart people don’t vote for republicans’
Roger Moore
@Dennis SGMM:
The founding fathers weren’t especially great on this issue. For the most part, they saw the franchise as privilege that would go only to the elite. Take a look at voting laws from the early years of the country, and you see that the franchise was routinely limited to white male property holders. That’s why there were no voting rights protections enshrined in the Constitution until the 14th Amendment.
raven
@JPL: Yea, they were as bad as I have ever seen them since LSU whalloped them. The Illini won big so it’s just hoping LSM can beat Auburn now!
quannlace
As Marge Simpson would say, “They do good work!”
kay
@redbeardjim:
I read he didn’t have to appear due to the apology he made. He’s also filed for a stay, I believe.
He had a humiliating loss last week on deceptive ballot language on a referendum in a state court, so I was pleased by that.
We’re using early vote flyers for OFA that have a calender with the last three days of early voting
blocked out, so they’re planning for the worst.
Maude
@PurpleGirl:
I’m okay in NJ.
quannlace
I did the same here in NJ, even though Christie hasn’t tried any chickenshit suppression. I sent away for an absentee ballot for my 90 year old mom, and decided to get one for myself (you don’t need to provide an excuse.) Figured you never what might happen on election day.
JPL
@raven: hmmm
AdmirerofTunchCat
Come on, post some Tunch kitty pictures. Go Stillers!
Ruckus
@raven:
I really don’t know how or what to answer to that.
Ben Franklin
You have a Republic, if you can (work hard enough to) keep it.
B.F.
Ruckus
@? Martin:
OK so that’s the reason. Cause Bernie and I are at least in the same zip code of leftyness.
greenergood
NEVER thought I’d say this, but as far as voters’ rights and churches go, THANK G-D! Pennsylvania is such an amazing example of the disconnect between people who have and don’t give a sh-t, and the rest. Really looking forward to the annual Thanksgiving dinner bite-yr-tongue non-melee, but with added Obama victory for personal sense of quiet satisfaction, please !!!
rikyrah
Kay,
will you do a post on that rat bastard in Iowa and what he tried to do?
thanks so much for these posts.
raven
@Ruckus: Try this, I was a dumb ass who went in on his 17th birthday and then, after a tour in Korea, was dumb enough to PAY to get into a unit going to the Nam. Beat that dumbitude!
raven
@JPL: Crap!
Balconesfault
The silver lining … if someone does go through that level of complexity to make sure they’re registered – their likelihood of voting when the election rolls around should skyrocket.
raven
“A German far-right group wants to stage a Berlin screening of the provocative anti-Islamic movie that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world, a report said.
“For us, it’s a question of art and freedom of expression,” Manfred Rouhs, head of the small “Pro Deutschland” group told weekly news magazine Der Spiegel in its edition due out on Sunday.”
Ben Franklin
@raven:
What’s yer point?
GregB
@raven: ]
Is it going to be a double bill with Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
Paul
@greenergood:
Maybe those people who didn’t bother to vote in 2010, or who didn’t like what the Dems had done between 2008-2010 realize that it is important to actually vote. There is a reason the GOP were able to do this, they had won the election.
raven
@Ben Franklin: My point is a 16 inch bayonet on the end of a Japanese Arisaka rifle. You?
? Martin
@raven: Submarines. 2 years on an old diesel, 2 years on a nuke attack. He figured it was about the last place the VietCong would look for him. He’s smart that way. And he loves the water, and didn’t mind rattling around down below it. I’m not sure I could have done the diesel, those things are fucking tiny.
? Martin
@Citizen_X:
Like I said, a chickenshit one. That’s all white supremacists are.
Dennis SGMM
@Roger Moore:
Thank you. I wonder if your explanation also reveals the reason why some conservatives would like to repeal the 14th Amendment. My thought is that they have lost the most rapidly growing populaces in the nation and so being able to restrict the franchise is their only hope.
If that’s a correct supposition then you’d think that they would change their ideas.
raven
@? Martin: My old man explained the one next to the Alabama in Mobile. He said “see that, it’s the same size as my ship”. He was on a converted WWI tin can, USS Crosby APD 17. Tiny indeed and underwater, damn!
Ruckus
@raven:
Beat that dumbitude!
Couldn’t do that with a twenty pound sledge.
ETA. And you and I are still here among the lucky.
raven
@? Martin: Ever hear of the The Arnheiter affair ? Crazy fucking skipper of a can. They bought a speed boat with the crew’s rec fund. He would put a couple of guys in it and back off beyond the horizon and try to bait Chinese subs. His XO went nuts. “we’re not at war with China”! He also took the ship right under the firing guns of a crusier during Operation Masher/White Wing. On top of that he had mandatory religious services on the fantail. Dude was really a nutbag.
Ben Franklin
@raven:
sounds like your pissed about something…
raven
@Ruckus: Fuckin A!
Ruckus
@Ben Franklin:
And you’re not?
raven
@Ben Franklin: Yea. Louisiana Monroe lost to Auburn in OT!
Ben Franklin
@raven:
Mea culpa.
raven
@Ben Franklin: I’m choppin in high cotton over here. I loves me some football. I hate to interfere with Kay’s great thread but it seemed like it was on the wane. We used to have football open threads during commie soccer season!
Ben Franklin
@raven:
If I didn’t know you were clean, I would have thought you meant cotton mouth. :)
raven
@Ben Franklin: Clarence!
JoyfulA
The Committee of Seventy has been doing the hard work on voter rights in Philadelphia for a long time (30 years that I know of). They’re wholly nonpartisan and among other things run an election day hotline a voter can call with any problem—the sort of thing the parties have to set up and operate elsewhere.
pat
I’ve been out canvassing for Obama a couple of times here in La Crosse, and my observations from a very small sample are that young single mothers with mixed-race kids will vote for Obama, while old white farts will not.
Go figure.
? Martin
@raven: No never heard of that. I’ll ask my dad about it.
? Martin
@JoyfulA:
ACORN!
(You know it’s coming. Committee of Seventy will turn into a branch of the Black Panthers by election day.)
Ann Marie
As a PA resident and voter, I really hope the PA Supreme Court rules against this outrageous law, and in time for the election, or a lot of people will not be able to vote. I volunteered at a clinic on Wednesday in which we helped people get birth certificates so they could then get photo ids. Almost 200 people. The problem is that getting a birth certificate, especially if you were born in another state, can take months. The people at the clinic were mainly from homeless shelters, but they aren’t the only ones affected by this law. I’m a lawyer and I didn’t have a photo id until after the Patriot Act. I don’t drive and only got one when I needed it to get on a plane.
TS
I listened to the appeal on CNN – until the feed died just as the Governor’s legal eagle started telling the judges this was all for democracy. What really annoyed me was the continual statements that it was easy to get the id – that it was going to be free and that it was a non-issue.
The lady Judge who spoke (apologies I don’t know her name) kept referring back to what was agreed on for the original case (there is no fraud) & one of the men discussed that it was impossible to meet the ID intent of the original law because it was contradicted by Fed law. If the original law is plain WRONG in relation to how to get an ID – why can any of it be legal?
TS
I forgot to add – many thanks Kay for the updates – I search for your posts each day