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Over almost the last 2 years I’ve written several times about the Pennsylvania voter identification law. The law was passed in March 2012 several weeks before the primary election. It seemed to me that the purpose of the law was voter suppression Continue reading “PA voter ID law struck down”
Several new polls show President Obama with a wide lead in many swing-states. Some say there is a bias.
Of course, the polls could be wrong. But it seems unlikely that the people who do the polls would show a deliberate bias as this would tend to destroy any credibility in the long-run.
But there could be all sorts of unintentional bias. Younger voters tend to have cell phone rather than landlines and so might not get the call. I have a landline but tend to look at my caller-ID and not pick up calls from numbers I don’t recognize and that don’t attempt to leave a message. Some who indicate they are probable voters might not actually vote.
There are probably quite a few other reasons. But the one that came to mind is voter suppression as a consequence of the Voter ID laws mainly sponsored by Republican legislatures. This seems to be a factor here in Pennsylvania.
Most of the polls I’ve seen indicate that President Obama is widening his lead in Pennsylvania but Mitt Romney has campaigned here in an attempts to turn things around. I know of at least 2 events yesterday (Friday).
I try to remember not to answer my phone without checking my caller-ID. Today unknown caller was calling so I figured it was a political or maybe a sales call and I’d listen to the message if there was one. The message was inviting me to a victory event for the Romney campaign tomorrow.
Does Mitt Romney know something we don’t know? Maybe the pollsters (except those working for the Republicans) are not figuring on an extensive suppression of the democratic vote by the new voter ID law passed by the republicans in the state house?
Now that the Voter-ID law has been upheld in Pennsylvania, a provision in the law has good news and bad news for those who show up at the polls without an acceptable ID.
The good news in that you can vote with provisional ballot. And your vote will be counted if you meet the requirements of the law. This good news if you are a registered voter and you do have acceptable ID but just forgot to bring it to the polls.
But bad news if you are one of those without an acceptable ID and there are thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands in that group. The Philadephia Inquirer has had a good series of articles on the difficulties of getting the ID that some people experience and the legal battles.
But back to the law. Here is a quote from the state of Pennsylvania website .
Voters who forget to bring ID to the polls in the November 2012 General Election can vote by provisional ballot. Their vote will be counted, as long as the voter returns a copy of their acceptable ID and affirmation letter to their county within 6 calendar days. Affirmations and copies of ID may be returned to the county in person, by mail, fax, or via email.
So if you have an acceptable ID already, just get it to the county ofices in the next few days and your vote will be counted. If you do not have an acceptable ID but can get one in the next few days, again your vote will be counted. But if you are one of those people who can’t get one in the months before the election, does it seem at all likely that you will be able to get one in the next few days?
So to prevent voter impersonation which does happen but seems to very rare, we are spending millions of dollars and disenfranchising thousands of voters.