Study: Black and Hispanic precincts hit harder by Voter ID
Political News and Analysis from Philly.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, including complete coverage of the 2008 Pennsylvania primary election.
Study: Black and Hispanic precincts hit harder by Voter ID
Bob Warner
An analysis of state data related to Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law suggests that minority voters in Philadelphia will have a tougher time than white voters getting the credentials to vote in the November general election.
The study was done by Tamara Manik-Perlman, a project manager and spatial data analyst at Azavea, the Philadelphia-based data and software firm that distinguished itself last summer by providing population data and computerized mapping tools to let ordinary citizens draw redistricting proposals for City Council. (Council essentially ignored their suggestions.)
Using data provided by Pennsylvania election officials, originally designed to show which voters do not have valid ID from PennDot, the state Transportation Department, Manik-Perlman mapped their voting addresses and correlated the information with race and ethnicity data from the 2010 U. S. Census.
The results, released today (Aug. 2): voters in the city’s most-heavily African-American voting divisions are 85 percent more likely to lack PennDOT credentials than voters who live in predominantly white divisions, according to Manik-Perlman. And voters in heavily-Hispanic neighborhoods are 108 percent more likely – that is, just over twice as likely -- to be without PennDOT ID. She said there was a similar pattern in heavily Asian neighborhoods.
The biggest warning that should be attached to the analysis is, it’s only as good as the data it’s based upon. While nobody is questioning the Census data, the Inquirer reported last weekend that the state data on PennDot ID is fraught with problems, due to a sloppy comparison of names between the state’s voter registration rolls and PennDot’s license files, mistakenly listing thousands of people as not having PennDot ID when they actually have it.
The state refuses to share PennDot licensing data with the public, making it impossible for Azavea to develop more accurate data on its own. But the U. S. Justice Department requested the PennDot data last week for its own probe of whether the new state ID law violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
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Comment removed.- State ID, once thought to be good was found to be bad.
Student ID, acceptable for decades in a host of applications are now illegal.
Passports are not common at all.
This will force grandmom to get another rubber stamp when for years her Social Security number and utility bill worked fine.
SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS.
— Cuddles 
Hey CleanupPhilly one of the i.d.'s that can't be used is a gun permit.— gb- Comment removed.
- Because the simple truth, as this article points out, is that many more people of color don't have these ID's, and the time is so short, and the process so convoluted to get any of them, that untold numbers will not have them in time and be robbed of their right to vote. No one is saying that people shouldn't get these ID's if and when they can. But if they can't by the arbitrary date of November 6, then they shouldn't lose their right to vote. That doesn't actually help them out. Even more impressive, btw, than the kinds of ID that are on the list, are the kinds that are not for no rational reason. For instance, a City employee ID is good. A School District ID is not good. Ridiculous.— Stan Shapiro
- We have so abandoned Public Education that more and more people cannot master a menu at McDonald's, much less ID rules that change daily.
— Cuddles - This comment has been deleted. — jfar86
- "The Northern and the Southern Hemispheres
Love emerges and it disappears
I do it for your love"
Paul Simon, circa 1980.— Cuddles - Comment removed.
- Well said!
— Jean Valjean - Puerto Rican birth certificates are worthless before 2010.
Jim Crow did not record mulatto births or lynchings.
Sad and very real American truth.
— Cuddles - Comment removed.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Florida,_2000
Who will write the final chapter?
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-great-florida-ex-con-gamernhow-the-felon-voter-purge-was-itself-felonious/
— Cuddles - this is what the republican party wants minority or democrat voters to have a problem when its time to vote so that they can steal the election and unseat Obama, myself i dont vote but i think i will vote this november just to send a message to the republicans, and all you other people who dont vote should vote and vote democrat. let us send the message that if you try to seal the election you will only hurt yourselves. also Corbett should be impeached. i am also aging to vote against him in the next pa governor election even if the guy running against him is the good humor man or a hobo living on the street— harveytrabbit
- if you have no id chances are slim for getting one or hard to get. to get penndot id you need a ss card and birth certificate. to get a ss card you need a birth certificate and something to prove your address, to get a birth certificate you need a photo id.so in the long run you have to have id to get id and around and around in a circle we go,corbett knew about this problem before he made this law and the senate passed it at a late time knowing all along that any people wouldnt have the id requirements in time for the november election. who else other than the republican party would pull a stunt like this whey want to win the election by hook or by CROOK but they would prefer to steal it— harveytrabbit
