Despite widespread accusations of voter suppression, a Pennsylvania judge ruled to keep the state's new voter ID law intact. Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson declined to grant an injunction to block the controversial new law, which could have a major impact on voting in the swing state and, ultimately, the upcoming presidential election.
Opponents plan to file an appeal with the state Supreme Court within the next few days.
Now, every voter in the state must show a valid photo ID — they key word being valid. The new states "all photo IDs must contain an expiration date that is current, unless noted otherwise."
Supporters of the law helps stop election fraud. Critics argue the Republican-backed bill wrongfully targets Democratic voters and will mostly disenfranchise the poor, minorities, the elderly and students. Only adding fuel to the fire, Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai suggested an ulterior motive for pushing the legislation, saying the new law "is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania."
Last Word guest host Chris Hayes pointed out the actual trick to stopping election fraud, isn't voter roll purges or voter ID laws, it's government bureaucrats in the attorney general's office doing their jobs well.
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Who's pocket is this judge in? He heard the argument that this so called governor wants to block the minority vote, really! This is what our country has come too, blocking the vote so cornball Romney can get elected!!!! Is this what our country was founded on, I don't think so! Get out there and vote, send Romney back home to his elevator and lets not keep voting for these radical governors who are out for themselves and not for the people they serve. All you can do is block the vote which so many fought for and died for. Obama 2012
Uh, how is requiring an ID "blocking" anyone's vote? You need ID to drive, buy tobacco, alcohol, etc. If you don't have some sort of picture ID, how do function in this country? I'm sorry, this is such a sorry argument! Showing ID does not hinder anyone from voting unless their ILLEGAL. Stop calling it "undocumented". Illegal is the correct word, and no it's not hateful or denegrating. It's the truth.
Boy, some of these people have id's, driver's license, etc, but if they have an expired date on them, ie. elderly doesn't drive anymore, they're invalid. School id no date, invalid. Total voter suppression. Totally disgusting. Voter fraud is almost non existent. This is for Romney victory and that is all.
Millions of Americans function quite normally without an ID. If you're elderly or disabled, or too poor to buy a car, you don't have a driver's license. I don't know anyone over 40 who is ever carded when purchasing alcohol or tobacco. I've lived and regularly voted in this small town/rural county for over 30 years and never had to show an ID. The only photo ID I've ever had is one that I obtained in 1998, three blocks from home (I've used it a single time since). The DMV was abruptly moved across the county to a much smaller town, as soon as the new voter ID was mandated. I've no car, and there is no public transportation. I most assuredly am not undocumented.
You won't be able to use that ID that you made at Chuck-E-Cheese either. Now how will my eleven year old vote? Just a side thought for those old people that don't drive anymore they can trade in that old expired drivers license for a state ID, takes about as much time as renewing your drivers license, and in many states it is free.
We have I.D. We pay taxes and we use our SSN. We get benefits and we get them via SSN. If you do not have a photo I.D. it was because you probably did not need one to prove you are you. SSN were given to us by the Feds. At birth, my son got his. If you are very elderly you probably no longer drive or never did. Now many have to get a photo I.D. to exercise their FEDERAL right to participate in a FEDERAL election where they reside, without paying a pole tax. That is the point. There will be a pole tax for this lady to get to the DMV and get a special photo I.D. and if she was born at home as man blacks were because of traditional discrimination and poverty, she may not have the documents she needs. Americans need to review history. Justice Harlan would turn over in his grave to see some states and their judges deny the moral imperative of Federal law.
Anthemboy, it is a constitutional right to vote.
You don't have a constitutional right buy tobacco, drive, buy alcohol,have a library card, ride a bus.
The ID hinders people from voting because they don't have a constitutional right to ride the bus to the DMV to get an ID.
You have a constitutional right to vote if you are a registered voter, a citizen of the United States and a resident of the polling place you intend to vote in, not a felon, and over the age of 18. Anyone else who doesn't meet those criteria is committing a felony if they attempt to vote. This Act will unburden the government from having to investigate, arrest, indict, try in a court of law, and punish with incarceration all those that will be trying to vote when they are not entitled to in November in PA, especially in Philidelphia!
And, of course, it applies to Voters intending to vote Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green Party, for any Indpendent Non Party Affiliated Candidate, etc. So whats the beef?
Somebody want to challenge Grandpa Fuzz to provide the actual number of cases of proven voter fraud in the last ten years?
When his latest presidential hero, George Walker Bush aka...ah, save that one cabbie; lots of comments tonight, and I'm happy they're here, and I'll spare them a bit of bloodletting--was seriously attempting find cases to prosecute this non-issue?
There's your cue, Fuzzie... You can now attempt to wow us with the latest bit of fiction downloaded from your Repugnikan talking oinks® machine...
BTW, Grandpa, I think you mean "resident of a voting district that your polling place is assigned to represent." That makes it two brain freezes for you on easy stuff, and only one for me.
Newest voting scandal coming on the heels of the ACORN fraudulent attempts to register non eligible voters for the 2008 election is the nationwide attempt by a new Voter Registration organization made up of former Democrat officials and current Democrat Party consultants that are mailing official" state voter registration forms in mass targetting young women, minorities, and the "poor" (strangely, all Obama's best hope to overwhelm his decided lackluster support amongst white over 30 women, seniors, middle aged and young white men). Louisiana officials have closely inspected the organizations forms that have been returned to the state from that states targeted would be voters, and found 90% of them were not eligible to vote.
The scale of this operation? To date 1 million, 500 thousand returned to the states, with dead people, felons, children under 18 yr of age, immigrants (both legal and illegal), and even cats and dogs responding to as would be registered voters. That's 1,500,000,000 would be registered voters for the 2012 registration, and if the Louisiana experience is representative of the national figures, 1,350,000 of the respondents will on investigation to be found to be ineligible voters.
And still the organization persists in new mailings daily.
Goodness, they're mailing voter registration forms to people? How un-Democratic! And in Louisiana (which, last I checked is a definitely a red state).
You can do better manufacturing shinola than that, Fuzz...
Now what's with that one billion, five hundred million figure you just tossed in? Population of the whole country is only a little over 300 million at last count...
I've brought up the possibility of hitting the Nyquil too often, but now I'm beginning to think it's a Thorazine deficiency you're suffering from....
I notice the old man never provides links to prove his assertions.
Further, senility must be setting in - there is a distinct difference between registration fraud and voter fraud. What the old man seems confused about is that when any organization receives a suspect registration, it is the organizations responsibility to notify the local election officials - which ACORN did.
As far as actual voter fraud - since 2000 there have been a whopping 10 instances. So, as usual, the Teapublican's are trying to "fix" a nonexistent problem.
It is time to check the bank account. Wait you will not find that money in a bank account; at least not in the United States.
I was just wondering IF Mitt Romney were to win if he would lower himself to moving into the white house like it is or would he have to tear it down and build something much better ??? He always wants the best to live in.
So not only are the Romneys thieves by not paying their 'federal income taxes for 10 yrs they want the low income people in Pennslyvania to get new state ids.. Hmm?? Theyre stealing the right of over 600,000 people to vote!! Give the low-income people new free state Ids!!Mitt can pay for it all's he needs to do is make a withdraw from one of his Swiss bank accounts! And if he files a his income tax return for 2012 he can use that as a charity deduction...maybe??
My hubby had a brain aneurysm in 1998, couldn't drive anymore, so he had to get a state ID that looks just like the drivers license. I am a senior and the person that takes someone to the Dr. can take them to the License place. I did my hubby. Also God Bless everyone. My hubby just passed this April 23, 2012, but because EMT's made him walk 98ft. and crawl up into the back of the ambulance and he used up his reserve air walking and his heart stopped. You all are so worried about ID's, when I have lost my hubby at the age of 66. God Bless everyone, let's get real.
nothing new, just it is good to make sure everyone is a legal voter. We need change. God Bless America!
@ Keith Longley You seem to hate all the talking heads (O'Donnell, Ed, etc.) on MSNBC. Why, then, are you ALWAYS on these posts? Are you being paid?
Because he's a retired, cranky and ornery old bastard. He keeps getting kicked out of "arts & crafts." The only reprieve any of the other folks at the Senior Day Care Center get is when he takes his senior nap in the afternoon.
I can not believe that, all evidence to the contrary, the judge feels that this is a non-discriminatory law and that getting a state-issued ID will not put much of a burden on those citizens who are currently without such an ID. I have to wonder, are all judgeships crony appointees? Because this judge seems just as clueless as Romney when it comes to the everyday life of regular people.
I'm giving the PA Supreme Court the benefit of the doubt that it will strike down this blatant attempt at voter suppression.
Have we no shame? Have we no way to spread the truth? Is there no social media, no way to dedigate unsold advertising space to voting? Are we really without the means to publish the names of the perpetrators damming voter ID laws? Cannot the names of the legislators to foisted this crime on democracy, be named? Cannot the names of the Governors, and Secretaries or States be made be known? If not for suppressing the voting then for what? We might want to keep these names in the public face, now, soon, and in the future forever? Will these villains be feeding at the public expense, will they be allowed to keep collecting taxes for themselves, and will be allow there political careers to continue?
Economic Priority?
If the country was in such good company, with for example, an old friend who was once a more frequent visitor named the Economy then we must be satisfied in some way. Satisfied is that homey feeling with all the smiles saved up for the new born and all the world that matters then smiles it back like sunshine greets a fine day. These are the butter cup Sundays.
These are also like those very frequent advertisements that aim perpetually at the human need to encourage sociability, to keep sanitary and odor free, that area of the body that has many different names, like number two. Step back and see that there is constant need enough, and it's healthy to be regular, but to assume a need to advertise this product just as consistently since displaces the productivity needed to provide for the primary social group called the family.
It is more important to attend to the economy and it is vitally important to see that elected representatives are working on our behalf, and to further understand that a third of those who could cast votes are not doing so. If this issue were just tissue, we can sense what might happen if that third of the voting franchise, also refrained from using bathroom tissue between. Not too much imagination or leading around by the nose would be needed to get the downwind idea into your nostrils.
There may be obvious priorities for bathroom courtesy, but it should not wipe from the slate the higher priority to go to the polls and vote.
Would it do the public any good if it saw, the same number and placement, clever advertisements, targeting the pleasure of going to the polls to vote? To show people talking about how to get to the polls early, and of some of the possible things that family and friends could possible encourage the reluctant family voter to go to the polls. Would not be a good idea to offer an after the voting dinner meeting, to see democracy in action?
Is there is anyone out there with the advertising bucks who can replace toilet paper advertisements, with those of civic duty to vote? Just one huge donor who would like to thank us for the system that made them rich, in appreciation for all that was done to make such success possible? If not then what may we have to offer is a vote-luck dinner with hot dogs and beans?
Once or twice a year to vote does not seem, too much to ask, or we just going to sit there and vote with the music roll.
Any snide jokes about the futility of voting or comparing the two are not welcome, we have heard all the jokes, but if you open your nose the smell might help you to hold your nose and go to the polls.