Pennsylvania Voting ID Law Blocked
Voter Protections Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 1
May 29, 2009
PENNSYLVANIA - In late March, Advancement Project learned that the Pennsylvania legislature was considering a bill that would require all voters to show a photo ID every time they vote. Under current law, only first-time voters have to show a photo ID to vote.
Well aware that such laws would unfairly disenfranchise People of Color, the poor and the elderly, who are far less likely to have driver’s licenses or an acceptable photo ID, Advancement Project and other voting rights groups and civil rights groups jumped into action.
“We found out in late March that this new voter ID bill had been introduced requiring photo ID from all voters,” said Kathryn Boockvar, an Advancement Project senior attorney. “We and partners from all over the state collaborated in producing a massive public outreach campaign, calling state senators telling everybody we could think of.”
Advocates for Senate Bill 514 argued that the law they sought was intended to protect the vote, implying that voter impersonation was a problem. However, there were no instances of voter impersonation in Pennsylvania in the 2008 general election and scant evidence of it occurring in prior elections. Furthermore, said Boockvar, there are already laws protecting against fraud.
The bill had the real potential to shrink the franchise and make it harder for certain Pennsylvanians to vote. About 25 percent of African Americans, 15 percent of poor Americans, and 20 percent of senior citizens are without current photo ID. The implications of such a bill on those populations would obviously inhibit many from voting.
Boockvar drafted a strongly worded letter, sent to state legislators, opposing SB 514. About 20 organizations including the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Democracy Rising PA, Common/Cause PA, the Disability Voting Coalition of Pennsylvania, and the NAACP National Voter Fund signed the letter.
In April, Advancement Project was pleased to find out that the senate committee that sponsored the bill was shelving it. “It was a huge victory for the voters,” said Boockvar.
She has since talked with the chair of the senate committee, Chuck McIlhinney Jr., who told her the Senate is: “going to reintroduce a different variation of the bill that will be much more benign.”
“He said they’re going to get rid of everything everyone was upset about,” Boockvar said.
Despite the victory, voting-rights advocates will have to be vigilant for the bill, once it’s revived, to see what emerges, and fight it again, if necessary, said Boockvar. “We’ll have to see what comes up next,” she said.
