Important admission from the voter fraud fraudsters on the Right:
As the Justice Department investigates Pennsylvania’s voter ID law on the federal level, a coalition of civil rights groups is gearing up for a state trial starting Wednesday examining whether the law is allowable under Pennsylvania’s constitution.
In that case, Pennsylvania might have handed those groups and their clients (including 93-year-old Viviette Applewhite) a bit of an advantage: They’ve formally acknowledged that there’s been no reported in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania and there isn’t likely to be in November.
The state signed a stipulation agreement with lawyers for the plaintiffs which acknowledges there “have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.”
Additionally, the agreement states Pennsylvania “will not offer any evidence in this action that in-person voter fraud has in fact occurred in Pennsylvania and elsewhere” or even argue “that in person voter fraud is likely to occur in November 2012 in the absense of the Photo ID law.”
Someone should alert the media personalities at Fox News and The Wall Street Journal. The voter fraud nonsense they’ve been paid to push for the last 5 years didn’t even survive pre-trial preparation.
Good, solid, factual piece on Pennsylvania’s voter ID law that makes an important distinction:
Pennsylvania is one of four states that falls into the category of “strict” photo identification requirements, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Georgia, Tennessee and Kansas also have narrow laws on polling IDs requiring a state-approved photo.
Pennsylvania’s new law is one of the most restrictive in the country. That’s important because the more restrictive a new voting law is (and they get more restrictive every year) the more important it is to for the state to provide detailed information on how voters can qualify for a first class (not provisional) ballot under the new restrictions.
Every time I write about voting rights here I get comments where people ask why various civic groups or political campaigns aren’t educating voters on these restrictive laws. While I think it’s wonderful that the League of Women Voters and the ACLU and volunteer lawyers and church groups have taken it upon themselves to do the work that Governor Corbett and his political appointees are paid to do, let’s not forget something. Rock-bottom level competence and diligence in administering elections is the duty of the state. Governor Corbett is ultimately responsible for running elections properly in Pennsylvania. Because Governor Corbett and his political appointees have outsourced voter education on their new law to Romney bundlers and GOP operatives does not mean that the civic groups or churches or volunteer lawyers or political campaigns are now responsible for proper election administration in Pennsylvania. Refusing to do your job doesn’t mean someone else is responsible for doing it.
If you are a Pennsylvania voter and you have a question on how to qualify to vote under Governor Corbett’s new law, call this number and ask:
For more information on Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, visit
www.VotesPA.com
or call 1-877-VotesPA (1-877-868-3772)
I called yesterday and tested the phone number out with a hypothetical question on “address mismatch”, which is the most common problem voters run into when Republicans change voting laws and fail to inform voters of the changes. We saw that in Ohio, where both voters and poll workers were completely confused on what to do when the address on a registration and the address on the newly required ID didn’t match.
Provisional ballots were never intended to be used to create two classes of voters, those with driver’s licenses and those without driver’s licenses, or those who own property so move less frequently and those who rent, so move more frequently. We have just one class of voters in the U.S. A provisional ballot is a last resort, not a special, lesser ballot to be distributed to whole groups of “provisional” people.
Call and ask if you have any doubt whether your ID and your particular situation qualifies you for a first class ballot. If it doesn’t, ask how you can remedy the problem that Governor Corbett and his political appointees created. Force Governor Corbett and his political appointees to do the job they’re paid to do.
Upper West
The fundamental question I have is: “What’s the Rush?” Even if voter-ID were a good idea, it should not be implemented until the state can certify that it has provided ID’s to all or nearly all eligible voters.
The rush is the “tell.” Ram through the laws for this election, without heed to the disenfranchisement.
Face
Here’s my prediction:
It will be precisely these provisional ballots that will be the source of lawsuits in FL, OH, PA after the GOP loses in November but refuses to give up. Minnesota’s Franken/Coleman writ large. I suspect they will litigate until they hope to get the SCOTUS involved, at which time anything is possible.
Elizabelle
But, but the Richmond Times Disgrace just had a front page story.
Dogs are getting voter registration applications.
There has to be something to this story. Don’t there?
Culture of Truth
Speaking front pagers, if I were a FP at BJ I would probably highlight this: Brain-Injured Abuse at For-Profit Center Scandalizes U.S
beltane
@Face: Too bad for them they’ve gone out of their way to alienate the Chief Justice.
R-Jud
Kay, just want to thank you again for highlighting these issues. I send posts like this about PA to my Dad, who’s been sharing them with the college students he coaches.
He is very busy making sure they and their friends and roommates are able to vote in November. Willing, too.
Valdivia
Kay, I hope this doesn’t sound too broken record fan-girl on my part but–you simply rock. That is all, since I am too angry to even start commenting on this particular outrage yet.
You did see how Edsall yesterday in the NYT equated Obama’s campaign ads to voter suppression? (because deflating voter enthusiasm on the Republican side equals outright barring people from voting right?) I just can’t even wrap my head around these idiots anymore.
PeakVT
@Elizabelle: Voter registration applications are super top secret documents. If dogs are getting them the Caliphate must be just around the corner.
smintheus
@Upper West: Agreed. Except “nearly all” isn’t good enough. If it’s permissible to create a new qualification to voting like requiring an ID, then the state is responsible for ensuring that ALL eligible voters have that ID before demanding to see it at the polls.
Corbett set aside a million dollars to educate voters about this new law. Three points: That’s a million dollars the state doesn’t have to waste (Corbett has made huge cuts in basic things like support of state universities). Second, the money is all being thrown at advertising, not at paying to get IDs into the hands of people who don’t have them. Third, even just for the purpose of advertising the fact that people are going to be disenfranchised, it’s still inadequate for doing that. And THAT is a tell, also. If PA Republicans really thought the integrity of elections was under threat, then they’d do whatever was necessary to correct the situation.
Disenfranchising people with this new law is the actual, real threat to election integrity. The voter impersonation stuff, as they just admitted in pre-trial findings, is just an excuse to achieve the new law.
Cassidy
@Valdivia: Oh, but to wrap a baseball bat around their heads….that I can get behind.
geg6
Except when you do that, you can’t get anyone to pick up the phone. I was able to talk to a person exactly once, who immediately transferred my call to a number that has been discontinued and then to another that put me into voicemail. And I only got the voicemail because I was willing to sit through a whole giant menu and knew which menu item I needed to get through to.
There is no way to get answers on this because they designed it that way.
Valdivia
@Cassidy:
we could even borrow a rusty pitchfork or two no? :)
Kay
@R-Jud:
That’s great. Tell them to be careful about information. One of the problems with 15 different groups doing voter education is the error rate goes up. I found a big error on the Pennsylvania ACLU voting rights website yesterday. I emailed them, but this stuff is nitpicky, and we have to get it exactly right.
If people have questions, they should FIRST contact the state agency responsible.
PeakVT
@smintheus: That million dollars translates to not much more than $1 per possibly disenfranchised person. It’s a truly laughable attempt at a fig leaf.
Kay
@geg6:
I got a person. She wasn’t sure what happens when there’s an address mismatch, but she thinks they get a provisional ballot. Address has to match registration.
smintheus
@Valdivia: Edsall’s piece was a disgrace. As if attacking your opponent’s record were ever considered illegitimate!
Upper West
@smintheus: I agree that all voters should have ID’s. I just don’t think that’s ever achievable. Maybe that’s why there shouldn’t be any ID law. (especially since there is no real justification)
Ironically, a phased-in voter ID law with a certification that 99-100% of people have ID’s (obviously over a 1-2 year period), would have the likely effect of increasing turnout.
That’s why I think Dems need to follow a two-track policy this year — fight the law in Court as they’re doing, but also try to help every likely Dem voter comply (I hope they are in fact doing this).
Is there an “adopt voters” type program, where people like me can phone bank to help PA or other state voters meet the ID requirements?
danimal
@Elizabelle: Did the dog sign the voter registration form and subsequently cast a ballot?
If the dog did not do this, then there are two possibilities:
One, a human person fraudulently signed the voter registration form and fraudulently cast a vote–this is vote fraud and can be prosecuted. We see a few of these every election cycle. Maybe a dozen or two nationwide.
Two, the dog’s name sits on a voter registration card until the card is thrown away. This happens much more of the time. There is no impact to the election whatsoever.
The GOP is trying to confuse the issue and make option 2 look like a terrible strain on the rights of registered voters. It just isn’t. This is NOT a reason to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of legal, eligible voters.
followership problem
I just learned that people renewing their driver’s license in FL now must provide proof of identification (birth certificate, passport, etc.), proof of Social Security number (Social security card, annual social security statement,U.S. Internal Revenue Service tax reporting W-2 form or 1099 form, payroll check stub issued by employer), and proof of residence (utility or credit bills, bank account statement, but “Other documents containing your name and address may be accepted with manager approval”). Notice any themes here?
I can see some Floridians being SOL for voting if their driver’s license is coming up for renewal in, say, mid-October. That doesn’t give much time for people to lay hands on the necessary documents. Oh, well, they can always vote a provisional ballot, right?
smintheus
@PeakVT: Wouldn’t even pay the salary for somebody to talk to each of them on the phone for 10 minutes to explain why the state is screwing them.
Valdivia
@smintheus:
I was livid reading that. This pathological need by reporters to fabricate an equivalent for every republican ugliness on the other side is going to kill the Republic. It makes the real serious problems seem intractable when in reality they aren’t if the voters knew they come just from one side of the aisle.
Cassidy
@Upper West: Problem is that if an ID is going to be required for voting, then that ID needs to be provided at no cost. I’m not sure that is the case, but I could easily be wrong. Secondly, the list of what passes for an ID is horrendous. Some kid can’t use his student ID, but Billy Bob can spend one day in a class and use his CCW? WTF?
El Cid
The problem with voting is that it’s too easy.
More and more and more hurdles need to be placed in our way, so that eventually only the tiniest yet most motivated fraction of us makes it through to vote.
Even great wealth should just be part of the qualifications; after that, there should be the target practice round, the kenpo battle with American flags, a professionally evaluated soliloquoy delivered in the persona of a few chosen Founding Fathers, and then, and only then, would someone qualify to submit an application to register.
Then comes the actual application competition.
Cassidy
@Valdivia: They’re first up against the wall.
Cassidy
@El Cid: You left out the uphill mud run with obstacles.
Kay
@smintheus:
He should have put the money into extra staff on election day. Pennsylvania has one of the most restrictive voting laws in the country, and Pennsylvania doesn’t have “no fault” early voting. A double whammy. Early voting takes pressure off the system on election day.
There are going to be long lines, and people are going to be shunted to the provisional ballot system when they don’t belong there. Processing a provisional ballot takes 4 times as long as a standard ballot, so the problem will compound all through the day, because poll workers will be pressed for time and shoving more and more onto provisional ballots when they encounter even slight uncertainty. This is just absolutely moronic. They’ve set up a system that’s guaranteed to fail.
smintheus
@Upper West: Yes, that’s why there shouldn’t be any such law.
I don’t know of any volunteer phone banks. To be effective, Democrats would have to invest millions of dollars to send people to help the disenfranchised obtain the documentation they need, and then to drive them to a DMV to get an ID. And that’s just not feasible. My own nearest DMV here in eastern PA is about a 45 min. drive, with no adequate local bus service. I’d have to hitch a ride if I didn’t own a car.
PeakVT
@danimal: Here’s the story, and the scandal isn’t that dogs are registering, it’s that dogs are being sent applications unasked by a third party. If that’s not the greatest threat to the Republic since the Civil War I don’t know what is. /eyeroll
Elizabelle
@danimal:
Oh, precisely. There’s no indication Fido Jones was going to fill out the application, or show up on election day. And be allowed to vote by polling place staff.
It’s information thrown out there to discredit voter registration drives.
PeakVT
@Kay: From the Republican POV, if it fails, it’s brilliant. Not only will the worse problems be in heavily Democratic areas, it also will prove that government can’t do anything right. We’re just about to see the same dynamic with the Post Office, which will “default” on its pension obligations sometime this week.
Elizabelle
@PeakVT:
Thanks, Peak, for providing the link.
I was distracted by this shiny object, blaring from the Disgrace’s Opinion section:
Mr. President: I Did Build My Business.
Which I declined to read (yet), since you can just guess at its innate awfulness.
smintheus
@Kay: Yes. And I’m worried that state Republicans may be primed to take advantage of the new fragility of the voting process, perhaps by intentionally disrupting voting in Democratic leaning districts. It would be even easier to do now than in the past, when (in my experience) it was already astoundingly easy.
In 2008 I was leafleting at a rural polling place when a self-described Republican lawyer/poll watcher showed up, set up a table and was allowed to ask the line of voters to identify themselves to her first before talking to the actual poll workers. Somehow she managed within half an hour to back the line up so that people thereafter had to wait hours to vote. And this at a small town polling place. Hard to tell whether this was a deliberate, coordinated attempt to disrupt voting in PA or just some idiot causing difficulties. But it took Obama lawyers to drive out 30 mins. to force the troublemaker to knock it off; the local poll workers couldn’t handle her.
danimal
@Elizabelle: I was pretty certain you knew all that, I’m just getting my talking points in order. I am genuinely outraged at voter disenfranchisement. I have enough ego to believe that if I’m outraged, others will be, so I plan to bring it up at picnics, parties and other social events where the anti-Obama cranks I know will be attending.
If you don’t like Obama/Dems, don’t vote for them, but systematically taking the vote away from people is a sin against democracy.
Maude
@Valdivia:
Isn’t his name the same as the car that was never seen again, made by Ford?
Kay
@PeakVT:
I’m trying, in my own pathetic way, to head off what media and conservatives did after Florida. Remember how Florida’s inability to administer an election was the fault of all sorts of lower level people? It was the locals at the Bd of Elections! It was those dumb-ass old lady voters who can’t read a ballot! It was the fault of the Gore campaign ground workers!
Weird how we seem to push salary UP the chain, but push responsibility DOWN the chain.
Oddly, we never reached the governor of Florida, who is of course ultimately responsible for an election conducted in the state of Florida.
Mistakes are made, just never by important or powerful people.
Maude
@Kay:
It’s the Reagan way.
He made it work for him and it seems to have been working ever since.
I do think that it’s coming to an end and it won’t work anymore.
Upper West
@Kay: According to a friend in Harrisburg, it’s possible that the law may backfire on the PA GOP by disenfranchising more GOP voters (i.e., i the “Alabama, rural parts of PA) that Dems. Is there any truth to this?
(Though even if true this should not stop Dems from fighting the law. The rush to put the law into effect before the election is simply obscene from any political standpoint.)
Kay
@smintheus:
Wow. That shouldn’t have happened. In Ohio, lawyers who enter a polling place as election protection volunteers have to “enter” (submit an entry to the head poll worker) that is signed by a common pleas judge. I get one original and then make copies and submit one to each precinct I enter. That way I’m accountable for anything I do while at the polling place. I don’t approach voters at all. I don’t even approach rank and file poll workers. If I see a problem (hear a problem, actually) I go the “presiding judge” (head poll worker) and then they straighten it out. If the head poll worker won’t address it I go out to the parking lot and call the Board of Elections. I have no direct contact with poll workers or voters at all.
bemused
@Elizabelle:
One of the regular wingnut commenters in local paper just ranted about “Rose, a black lab who died 14 years ago received a pre-filled out voter registration from a liberal group!” The detail that the dog wasn’t alive, died 14 years ago cracked me up.
The same wingnut was hysterical because “an estimated 1.8 million dead voters voted for Obama in 2008”. Wow. The report that up to 1.8 million deceased people were still registered to vote was reported in February of this year but the ranter believes that all of these same voters were dead in 2008 and 1.8 million voted for Obama. Wingnuts will swallow anything the rightwing media feeds them and add some of their own embellishments too.
Cassidy
@Kay: Yes, but you care about voting. This person wanted to disrupt it.
Cassidy
@bemused: I estimate 100% of Republicans are piles of shit and batchit crazy. I love how that estimating thing works.
Xenos
@smintheus: re. the freelance voter inspector who slowed the process down by a matter of hours…
I am not going to advocate violence, but the fact that someone could do this and not get major pushback from the voters in line is really quite disturbing. All it takes is one person to stand up to someone like that to make them quite ineffective at their ratfucking. And while they might try to sue for assault (not battery, assault) they would have to explain what they thought they were doing out on that line if they want the police, or a jury, to listen to them.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@smintheus:
I’d be happy to volunteer for this, but I haven’t seen any evidence that anyone is doing this. Lots of registering new voters and making sure they have ID, but not much of working with current registered voters.
PeakVT
@Upper West: This report says residents of the city of Philly lack an ID at twice the rate of the state as a whole.
I’m sure the Repukes got a count of IDs issued by county or zip code, compared it to the total population, and thought they’d come out ahead.
ETA: Obama won Philly 83% to 16%.
smintheus
@Xenos: She did get major pushback from voters and various officials on hand. She didn’t care, she just kept slowing things down. The poll workers apparently didn’t know how to deal with something as bizarre as this, and just punted. I was planning to walk in and badger her verbally, but the local officials didn’t want to allow a confrontation. I think they hoped the county elections officials could sort it out, but that didn’t work. So I called the Obama campaign, who came to the rescue eventually.
catpal
@Kay: Yes there will be Very Long Lines and Waiting times on election day – by Republican design.
Corrupt Corbett’s new Sec of State Aichele is well known to make Voting difficult when she was a County Commissioner. She and her Republican majority were known for harassing poll workers, last minute changes to polling locations, limiting voting ballots or machines – to create long lines. They were even sued and cost the County over $200,000 to settle a DOJ voting rights complaint from the 2008 election.
meanwhile PA Dems are trying to help people get a Voter ID — but are limited by few PennDOT offices, and limited Open hours with 2 hour waiting times — purposely setup by PA Republicans to make this more difficult. Thanks Kay!
Elizabelle
@smintheus:
Can you do anything about having this woman banned from voter interaction this year?
El Cid
You want to piss off right wingers?
Tell them (it doesn’t have to be true) that Obama and Holder are planning to propose a new national ID, one which will be free and will be legally classified as equivalent to any state ID, and sufficient identification for all states for voting purposes.
You’ll have them going batshit crazy about the Amero and so forth.
Carl Nyberg
There should be a federal law that changes to state election law that effect federal elections need to be passed one election cycle in advance.
There should be an exception for moving primary dates and other minor changes. These could be achieved by a 2/3 vote of the legislature.
Johnny B
It isn’t just that they have no evidence that in-person voter fraud ever occurred or ever will occur, it’s worse. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania argued in their brief defending the new Voter ID Law that voting is not a fundamental right. I so wish one of the Pennsylvania newspapers would report that information.
Triassic Sands
At a time when we have countless problems in need of solutions, isn’t it nice that the GOP is providing us with solutions that don’t have problems.
cckids
@Valdivia: I saw that as well, and my jaw absolutely hit the floor. Since I was looking for a diversion from my personally horrible day, that did not help with the despair at all.
rikyrah
thank you for keeping up up to date, kay.
danimal
@El Cid: Maybe we’re doing it wrong. From now on, I support poll taxes. 20 Ameros should do the trick..
JoyfulA
@Upper West: My county is 60% Republican (down from 67% 10 years ago), 90+% white, and suburbs, exurbs, and countryside (200,000 people). It has 14% of registered votes without “proper” ID, third highest in the state. The only reason I can think of for our prominence is the large number of nursing homes, retirement communities, and assisted-living facilities. If that’s it, they’re GOP voters.
Still, that’s nowhere near countering the many Philadelphians without drivers’ licenses.
Kay
@JoyfulA:
There’s an exception in the PA law for residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and retirement communities.
There’s a consistent theme to these laws, where there’s special carve-outs for likely GOP voters. In Ohio, originally, none of the ID provisions applied to absentee ballots, because absentee ballots in Ohio skew GOP. Of course, if there is ever coordinated election fraud, absentee ballots would be the way to do it.
I’m just going to give you this link because you live in PA. It’s incredibly thorough coverage of the PA court case.
Scroll down and read the amicus brief the Tea Party member submitted. It’s like something you’d read from the archived history of the KKK, dating back to the 1920’s. “The blacks in Philadelphia….”, etc. This guy submitted a brief like that to a court and put his name on it. Proud Tea Party member, voter ID supporter, and virulent racist.
Kay
@Johnny B:
I just found the brief. Wow.
Some of the briefs submitted by conservatives are absolutely amazing. I guess they’re not even bothering to deny or hide racial bias as a motive anymore.
These briefs deserve a much bigger audience, ya know, to add to our “debate” on these laws. Some of the conservative amici are basically accusing every black person in Philadelphia of felony voter fraud. Glad to see we’ve dropped any pretense of a motive other than racial animosity!
revrick
One of the things you need in PA in order to get a valid voter ID, if you don’t have a driver’s license, is a birth certificate with a raised seal. Considering the backlog in the system to obtain one under normal circumstances, how likely is it that the state will have enough staff to handle a potential million requests in the three months remaining? That’s 3000 pieces of mail that have to be opened every day (275/hr, almost 5/minute) just to begin handling the requests. That’s on top of those regular requests necessary to get Social Security, Passports and the like.
JoyfulA
@Kay: Thanks for the link, Kay. It really is thorough.
This state’s become a hornet’s nest with all the (unnecessary) turmoil re this, Penn State (Corbett was the AG too busy prosecuting Democratic legislators for allowing staff to campaign on state time to work on Sandusky), open season on untaxed fracking, hellacious budget cuts, etc., but the bright side is that Corbett’s approval ratings keep dropping.
Original Lee
@revrick: It gets even better. For the last 10 years or so, PA has been issuing plastic birth certificates (i.e., durable but no raised seal). I’m not sure if this is for replacement birth certificates as well as newborn birth certificates, but I know a whole pile of kids with ID that does not have a raised seal.
freeandequalpa
@Kay: The answer you received cannot be correct. Several of the forms of acceptable photo ID (passport, student ID, government employee ID) do not contain an address at all. So there would be nothing to match.
The part of the law that defines what qualifies as a acceptable photo ID says noting about the address on the ID having to match the address on the registration:
An acceptable ID is one that:
” (i) shows the name of the individual to whom the document was issued and the name substantially conforms to the name of the individual as it appears in the district register;
(ii) shows a photograph of the individual to whom the document was issued;
(iii) includes an expiration date and is not expired, except:
(A) for a document issued by the Department of Transportation which is not more than twelve (12) months past the expiration date; or
(B) in the case of a document from an agency of the Armed forces of the United States or their reserve components, including the Pennsylvania National Guard, establishing that the elector is a current member of or a veteran of the United States Armed Forces or National Guard which does not designate a specific date on which the document expires, but includes a designation that the expiration date is indefinite; and
(iv) was issued by one of the following:
(A) The United States Government.
(B) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
(C) A municipality of this Commonwealth to an employee of that municipality.
(D) An accredited Pennsylvania public or private institution of higher learning.
(E) A Pennsylvania care facility.”
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/HTM/2012/0/0018..HTM
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@freeandequalpa: I can guarantee that most poll workers, confronted with addresses that don’t match, will kick the voter to a provisional ballot just in case.