Head of Pa. GOP applauds pro-voter ID finding

The head of the Pennsylvania GOP cheered a new national poll showing that 74 percent of Americans support the requirement that voters show photo identification before casting their ballots.

"There is strong support - across voters in both parties - for this type of legislation, and there is national concern for voter fraud, despite protests from Democrats that it either doesn't exist or occurs too infrequently to matter," said Rob Gleason, chairman of the state Republican Party.

"Clearly, it matters to voters whether Democrats want to admit it or not," Gleason said.

Asked to respond to the Washington Post poll, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party instead directed criticism at Pennsylvania's voter-ID law.

"The voter-ID bill passed by Pennsylvania Republicans is an expensive and unnecessary piece of legislation," James Hallinan said.

"It is a solution in search of a problem. In the recent court proceedings the Corbett administration admitted that they couldn't provide a single example of voter fraud," Hallinan said.

A court ruling on whether to uphold Pennsylvania's law is expected this week.

While the poll showed strong support for voters being required to present photo IDs when they vote, it also showed that Americans are nearly as concerned with voter suppression.

When asked which issue concerned them more, 49 percent said fraud while 44 percent said voter suppression.

"As the Post's poll shows, Americans support these laws because they genuinely care about preserving the integrity of our elections," Gleason said.

"And it is imperative that we ensure that the will of the people is heard, especially with so much at stake for Americans in this upcoming election," he said.

Hallinan said the "implementation of voter ID in Pennsylvania by the Corbett administration has become a national embarrassment. . . . The Spanish-language voter-ID web page wasn't originally in Spanish. Three months from Election Day, the Corbett administration still cannot determine how many people the law will affect."