U.S Department of Justice Launches Investigation into PA Voter ID Law

Nikki Ditto, WLP Intern

The U.S Department of Justice has begun a formal investigation on the legality of Pennsylvania’s controversial Voter ID Law, which was passed in March of this year. The law, which we have blogged about before, stipulates that voters must show certain approved forms of ID before voting in every election. The law is under investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department for its unequal effect on minority voters in the state.

Carol Aichele, Secretary of the Commonwealth and the chief election official in Pennsylvania, received a three page letter on Monday, July 23^rd from Thomas Perez, the Assistant Attorney General. In the letter, Perez “requested state data on registered voters as well as the state’s list of individuals with driver’s licenses and ID cards.” The Department of Justice has also asked for information about Pennsylvania’s “efforts to educate voters about the new law.” The state has 30 days to compile all the requested information and send it to the Justice Department. 

According to Politico, while it isn’t clear what triggered the Department of Justice’s investigation, the letter does refer to a statement made by Aichele “indicating that 9.2 percent of the state’s 8.2 million voters don’t have a state-issued photo ID.” Pennsylvania has stated that “more than 758,000 voters may be disenfranchised” because they lack a correct form of ID, which also includes passports, military ID, and certain student IDs.

This is the first time the Department of Justice has investigated a state not covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). This section “requires certain states with a history of racial discrimination to have changes to their voting laws pre-cleared.” Two states that fall under this section, Texas and South Carolina, are currently facing opposition from the Department of Justice to their voter ID laws.

The investigation into Pennsylvania’s law falls instead under Section 2 of the VRA, which bars any state from enacting a “voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.”

The law is also being challenged in a lawsuit before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, and an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is likely.  While opponents of the law wait to hear whether it will go into effect for the November 2012 election, they are focusing on educating the public and on helping those in need obtain proper IDs in the hopes that such efforts can decrease the law’s harmful effects.

Plaintiffs Challenge the Constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s New Voter ID Law

On May 1, 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP), the Advancement Project, and the law firm of Arnold & Porter, LLP, filed a lawsuit challenging the new voter ID law in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.  The suit is filed on behalf of ten individual plaintiffs and four organizational plaintiffs who claim that the law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution by unduly burdening the fundamental right to vote, discriminating between voters in violation of Article I, Sections 1 and 26, and improperly adding additional qualifications to vote in violation of Article VII, Section I.  They request a preliminary injunction to prevent the law from going into effect.  The law, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Tom Corbett on March 14, 2012, requires voters to show certain acceptable forms of photo identification at the polls in every election starting with the general election scheduled for November 6, 2012.

The individual plaintiffs, ranging in age from 22 to 93, have been unable to obtain photo identification for a variety of compelling reasons. For example, Joyce Block, an 89-year-old woman, has a birth certificate and social security card with her maiden name while her voter registration is in her married name and her marriage license is in Hebrew; 84-year-old Nadine Marsh has no available birth certificate; and “Asher” Schor, who is 22 years old, presents and looks like a man but looks like and is listed as a female in his passport and driver’s license.  In the past, these individuals have been able to vote because Pennsylvania law previously required only first-time voters to show identification at the polls and accepted a wider variety of identification, including non-photo identification, such as utility bills.

The new law will disproportionately impact women, such as those, who like Mrs. Block, have assumed a married name that does not match their birth certificates, social security cards, or voter registrations.  The law will also likely disenfranchise many elderly and poor Pennsylvanians, and women are more likely than men to fall into these groups.  Women made up 58.5 percent of individuals age 65 years and older between 2006 and 2010 in Pennsylvania, and, as the Women’s Law Project (WLP) discusses in Through the Lens of Equality: Eliminating Sex Bias to Improve the Health of Pennsylvania’s Women (available online on May 14, 2012), women made up 56 percent of those living in poverty even though they only made up 51.4 percent of the state population.

Not only are the elderly and the poor less likely to have photo identification, but they are also less likely to be able to afford the documents required to obtain state-issued photo identification before November 2012.  The new law directs PennDOT to issue identification free-of-charge to individuals who have the necessary paperwork, but the Commonwealth refuses to waive the fee for obtaining a birth certificate.  Thus, for many, the new law will result in disenfranchisement while addressing a “phantom” problem, as the plaintiffs call it, of in-person voter fraud, of which the proponents of the new law have not been able to provide any concrete examples.

The “soft” roll-out of the voter identification requirement happened on April 24, 2012, when poll workers requested photo identification from voters who came to vote in the Primary but allowed everyone who was registered to vote as usual whether they had identification or not.  WLP Staff Attorney Amal Bass, who serves as a local Judge of Elections, said:

We had to ask our family, friends, and neighbors, people we’ve known our whole lives and see at every election, for photo ID.  Most had it, but some did not.  I expect a much higher turn-out in November, when people who do not vote in primaries and who are less likely to know the intricacies of the new requirements will show up.  There will be confusion when they try to sign-in, long waits, and ultimately some people may lose their right to vote because they do not have the required identification in time to vote in the booth or have their provisional ballot counted.

One potential solution to minimize problems and confusion would be to ease into this new law gradually, over the course of multiple election cycles.  Even then, however, as the plaintiffs allege, there may be citizens of the United States and of Pennsylvania who will never be able to vote under the new voter ID requirements, no matter how many election cycles they have to “adjust” to it, because their birth certificates no longer exist, their married names cannot be verified, or because there are other obstacles in the way of obtaining acceptable identification.

If the plaintiffs are unsuccessful at stopping this new law from going into effect, voters in Pennsylvania, with few exceptions, will have to show appropriate photo-identification at the polls in order to vote, even if they have voted before and even if all of the poll workers — including the Judge of Elections and the Minority Inspector (of the opposing political party), who are already there in part to prevent in-person voter fraud — can vouch for that person’s identity.

To learn more about the new law’s requirements and about how to obtain acceptable photo-identification, see the Committee of Seventy’s guide.

Voter ID Bill Would Disenfranchise PA Citizens

On June 23^rd the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Bill 934, a bill that would require voters to always show unexpired government-issued photo ID before casting a vote in an election. This is a stricter measure than current law which only requires citizens to show a photo ID the first time they vote. Supporters argued that the bill is a benign piece of legislation to discourage voter fraud. However, there is little evidence that voter fraud is a problem in Pennsylvania and, as Rep. Babette Josephs noted in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer,  requiring photo IDs before every vote would “disenfranchise poor, elderly, and minority voters.”

A 2006 study by New York University’s Brennan Center showed that 11% of U.S. citizens do not have the kind of identification that HB 934 would require. The study also found “that those without ID are disproportionately citizens over the age of 65, citizens who are African-Americans and citizens who earn less than $35,000 annually.” Andy Hoover, legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania said that this bill is likely to disenfranchise groups even beyond those identified in the Brennan Center’s study. He said, “it is…reasonable to assume that victims of domestic violence, people with disabilities, recently released inmates, and citizens who are homeless are less likely to have government-issued ID.” Shula Asher Silberstein also points out that trans individuals are more likely to be questionedabout th eir identity at their polling place if their government-issued identification does not reflect their gender identity. For this reason, the bill would make it more likely that trans voters will stay home if they do not wish to announce that they are trans in a public place.

In addition to hurting Pennsylvanians through disenfranchising many communities, the bill would cost taxpayers up to 11 million dollars for a problem that does not exist. Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski pointed out that since 2004, 20 million votes have been cast in Pennsylvania and there have been only six people arrested for voter fraud. He said “that’s negligible and certainly not enough to spend millions of dollars and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.” Even the non-partisan County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania has weighed in on the ridiculousness of this bill. Doug Hill, the Association’s executive director told the Philadelphia Inquirer that no county had reported even a suspicion of significant voter fraud.

HB 934, to quote Rep. Pashinski talking to The Times Leader, “is a solution in search of a problem.” Voting fraud in Pennsylvania is not a problem, but the disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens and the enormous cost to taxpayers that this legislation would cause is. The bill is now headed to the state Senate where it will likely be voted on in the fall. We will keep you updated about any developments on this issue.

Remember to Vote Today!

Although women and men often care about similar issues, women are not adequately represented in federal, state, or local government. As a result, women’s voices and needs are not as integral to the decision-making process, and final decisions about policies that affect the lives of women and their families are often left to men who make up the majority of the legislative bodies.

Today is primary election day in Pennsylvania, an opportunity for every individual to make his or her voice heard through voting. So be sure to head to your nearest polling place and cast your vote!

A few resources and things to remember:

• Click here to find your polling place (PA residents only).
• Click here to find your polling place if you are not a resident of Pennsylvania
• Voting is a RIGHT. If you are a registered voter, and have any problems casting a vote, call the Election Protection Coalition at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Remember to Vote Today and Bring a Friend!

The General Election is finally here, and today we have an opportunity to participate in our democracy by voting. In the past, there has been one group of the electorate that has not voted at the same rate as others — unmarried women.

In the 2004 presidential election, 71% of married women cast a ballot while only 59% of unmarried women voted. This year, unmarried women represent 26% of the electorate. That’s one out of four voters, and according to a survey by Women’s Voices, Women Vote, unmarried women appear to be driving much of the early voting in our country. Let’s push for 100% voter participation, and please try to vote early to avoid long lines.

Any Election Day problems should be referred to the Election Protection Coalition at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Finding your Polling Location in Pennsylvania is easy.

Readers in other states can find their polling places here.

The More You Know: Emergency Ballots

Election Day is almost here and we are expecting a great turnout at the polls, given the extraordinarily high number of voters who have registered all over the state (as well as all over the nation).  In consideration of this turnout, voting rights groups have been working to make sure proper precautions are taken in case voting machines malfunction.  Such situations posed a problem during the Pennsylvania primary election in April as some voters received emergency paper ballots, others waited hours to cast their vote, and some were simply told to try again later.  Such a hindrance in the voting procedure threatens people’s right to vote and have each vote count.

Luckily, there is a solution to these problems: emergency ballots. Although every county Board of Elections in Pennsylvania stipulates that all machines in the precinct must be inoperable before the distribution of emergency ballots, voters should request emergency ballots if they find that any malfunctioning voting machines are standing in the way of their vote.

For more information on emergency ballots, voting, or to report voting problems you can contact the Election Protection Coalition by calling 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

To learn more about specific Election Day procedures in Pennsylvania or to find your polling location you can go to the PA Voting Resources page on the Department of State’s website.

Know Your Voting Rights!

With an anticipated record voter turnout in Pennsylvania on November 4^th, it’s important that we all know our voting rights.  So spread the word, and here are some quick facts about voting in Pennsylvania:

• First-time voters, or voters who have moved and are going to a new polling location, must show some form of identification to vote. Approved forms of ID include: Voter Registration Card, PA Driver’s License, a passport, Armed Forces ID, an Employee ID, a Student ID, utility bill or a bank statement provided it has the person’s address on it.
• If you don’t have identification, you can still vote by Provisional Ballot.
• If your name is not listed on the rolls at the polling location, and you are sure this is your precinct, insist on voting by Provisional Ballot. Once your registration is confirmed your vote will be counted.
• If voting machines break down in your precinct, election officials must immediately provide paper Emergency Ballots to voters.
• People living in shelters and who have registered to vote using the shelter address can vote.
• People who are on probation, parole, or house arrest CAN VOTE.
• People in prison can vote only if they are serving time on a misdemeanor charge or they are awaiting trial (they can vote by Absentee Ballot).

If you experience problems voting or have a question about the process, call the Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.

For any questions related specifically to voting in Pennsylvania, or to find your polling location, you can check out PA Voting Resources.

And for a nonpartisan look at the issues at play in this election, head over to WomenVote PA.