State says it has met Supreme Court standard on Voter ID
The Pennsylvania Department of State and PennDOT today declared Tuesday that they have met the standard set by the state Supreme Court last Wednesday on "liberal access" to identification needed to vote in the Nov. 6 general election. That declaration comes one week before state Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson must rule on whether any voters will be disenfranchised by the state's Voter ID law.
State says it has met Supreme Court standard on Voter ID
Chris Brennan
The Pennsylvania Department of State and PennDOT declared Tuesday that they have met the standard set by the state Supreme Court last Wednesday on "liberal access" to identification needed to vote in the Nov. 6 general election. That declaration comes one week before state Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson must rule on whether any voters will be disenfranchised by the state's Voter ID law.
Secretary of State Carol Aichele, in a statement released Tuesday morning, said the process for obtaining a new state ID developed for voting has now been streamlined. A voter must visit a PennDOT office and provide their name, date of birth, Social Security number and address. PennDOT will confirm if the person is a registered voter and issue the ID.
Opponents of the law and voter registration advocates had complained that voters trying to get the new state ID were required to make multiple trips to PennDOT offices and wait several days.
"We believe these updates to our process will meet the Supreme Court standard that Voter ID cards be liberally accessible," Aichele's statement said.
Simpson, in an Aug. 15 ruling, rejected a challenge to the Voter ID law, relying heavily on the availability of the new identification cards, even though they were not offered until Aug. 27. The Supreme Court last Wednesday gave him until Oct. 2 to review how the new identification was being issued. The Supreme Court said Simpson was "obliged" to issue a preliminary injunction to keep the law from being used in the general election if it would prevent any voter from casting a ballot.
Once again, the majority has won. Voter ID is here to stay. Its fair, provides equal access and as evident by the ACLU's primary complaintent's ability to secure her ID, very easy to secure.
Liberals can chew on this while they try to figure out a way to allow millions of illegal immigrants and dead people to vote.
BTW, what's the unemployment total today??? Over 20%
Keep voting Democrat if you want the country to end up like Philly, Detroit, Camden, Chester, Oakland, etc...— Professor1982- Yes and don't forget to add the suburban slum of Abbington to your list of cities. It just kills you that Philly is on the rise.
This does not meet the test of making sure every voter has an id. The only way to do that is to do what Virginia did and mail everyone one regardless if they need it.
In the meantime, can I guess you are someone who votes against yourself? Or is it anyone who doesn't look just like you?— jonline - I wish Philly was "on the rise". It being nestled right in between DC and NYC, possessing one of the few deep water ports on the East Coast, and having I95 run right through it one would think the city has a very bright future.
But alas, with decades of selfish unilateral liberal Democratic rule, the City is clearly ANTI-BUSINESS (see Unions, Tax Code, Crime, etc...) and has a fraction of the per capita tax base it once had let alone job base it once possessed.
"On the rise"??? I think not and it scares me to think what metrics you use to measure anything base on that statement.— Professor1982 - This law only provides equal access to IDs if you are at least middle-class, gainfully employed with permanent housing.
It doesn't just disenfrachise Democrats, it will keep many low-income or no-income people from voting, including many who consider themselves Republicans.
It's voting by the elite. That may be what the "majority" wants, but so was slavery.— lk1066 
Comment removed.- I didn't realize that a self-serving statement from a Corbett stooge constituted a "Victory". For a guy who calls himself the "Professor", you are remarkably ignorant.— Palestra Jon
- I was thinking the same thing. Didn't the Corbett appointees in charge of Department of State and PennDOT already claim that everything was fine, even though they couldn't even DESCRIBE what the new requirements for a legal ID were nor could they address any of the points that the plaintiffs made about the lack of access to PennDOT centers in most of the state, etc.?PA Supreme Court stated that mere assurances from poltical appointees from state agencies were NOT enough to for the state to fulfill its obligation to show that ALL VOTERS without ID will get one before the election. PennDOT is issuing 1,000 IDs a week, which won't reach that standard even if you take the Corbett Administration position that only 1% of all PA voters don't have ID- a figure they couldn't substantiate and is much lower than PennDOT's own figures of 758,000 or U of Penn's one million. (HTML deleted) — Blanketman
- I was thinking the same thing. Didn't the Corbett appointees in charge of Department of State and PennDOT already claim that everything was fine, even though they couldn't even DESCRIBE what the new requirements for a legal ID were nor could they address any of the points that the plaintiffs made about the lack of access to PennDOT centers in most of the state, etc.?
PA Supreme Court stated that mere assurances from poltical appointees from state agencies were NOT enough to for the state to fulfill its obligation to show that ALL VOTERS without ID will get one before the election. PennDOT is issuing 1,000 IDs a week, which won't reach that standard even if you take the Corbett Administration position that only 1% of all PA voters don't have ID- a figure they couldn't substantiate and is much lower than PennDOT's own figures of 758,000 or U of Penn's one million.— Blanketman - Comment removed.
- @Palestra Jon - Sorry, don't be a sore loser.— Professor1982
- How is Palestra Jon a loser, sore or otherwise? So some Corbett appointees say the exact same thing that they have been claiming- that they will get a Voter ID to every legal voter by Election Day- but they are still only processing 1,000 IDs week. At that rate, they will NOT get IDs to even the extremely low, unsubstantiated guesstimate of 1% of the voters that even Corbett admits don't have ID, much less the 758,000 or one million figures which were based in actual evidence. When the State Supreme Court SPECIFICALLY said that such unsubstantiated claims by government officials would NOT be an acceptable guarantee that NO LEGAL VOTERS would lack an ID, how does more lies by Corbett appointees change ANYTHING? This is a long way from the Commonwealth's fulfilling its burden of proof under the court decision to show that NO LEGAL VOTERS will lack an ID. This new round of Republican lies changes nothing. — Blanketman
- Comment removed.
- I was thinking the same about you. Thousands of posts in the last few weeks. So, troll...what does make you? Thanks, for playing!!
- Protest this assault on voter rights by submitting a provisional ballot. A million or so provisional to process at least shows them we're not going down without a fight.
NO POWER, civil or military shall impede one's RIGHT to suffage
PA Constitution— noontime - Let's see what the Court does, Prof, not what Corbett says. Meanwhile, let's go out and find all that fraud that's going on...it's probably hanging out with Nicole Simpson's killer.— Palestra Jon
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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