The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has entered the suppress the vote wars. A new law that would require photo ID in order to vote is being challenged in court by several public interest organizations including the ACLU. The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, said the law violates the state constitution's "free and equal" elections clause and another clause that establishes qualifications to vote in Pennsylvania. If allowed to stand the new law would negatively impact college students, senior citizens, low income individuals and minorities, groups that are expected to vote heavily for President Obama in November. Pennsylvania is a swing state.
In 2010 Republicans won majorities in both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature and the governorship. As in other state where Republicans won control of the legislature and/or the governorship, new voter ID bills have been introduced and passed including in Florida, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Texas and Ohio. Voters have responded negatively to the vote suppression laws - filing law suits and/or gathering petitions to overturn the laws via the ballot box. Tennessee Republicans were embarrassed when a "free voter ID card" was denied to Dorothy Cooper, a 96 year old Black woman. In Ohio voters have collected enough signatures to put that state's voter ID law on hold until it can be decided in a referendum this November.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) blocked the South Carolina voter ID law. A state judge struck down the Wisconsin voter ID law, saying that it violated the state's own constitution and in Maine voters quickly overturned a GOP passed law that ended the state's decades long practice of election day voter registration, known as Same Day Voter Registration.
By Brent Scott, Executive Director: Vote by Mail America
Edited by: Jason Nicoletti
No comments:
Post a Comment