Pennsylvania’s Voter ID Wall

Pennsylvania has joined the growing list of Republican-dominated states that are attempting to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as possible.  Here is a digest of the negative reaction to that law.

THE LAW ITSELF

Beginning with the November 2012 election, a voter must show approved photo ID or PennDOT-issued non-photo ID in order to cast a ballot. 

Acceptable IDs include those issued by federal or state governments, including a current Pennsylvania driver's license (or no more than a year past its expiration date), a U.S. passport or a U.S military ID, employee ID cards issued by federal, state, county or municipal governments; ID cards issued by accredited public or private Pennsylvania universities or colleges; and ID cards issued by Pennsylvania long-term care facilities, assisted living residences or personal-care homes. ID cards must show expiration dates.

Voters without an acceptable photo ID on Election Day may cast a provisional ballot, which will be set aside and counted only if the voter provides proper identification with county election officials within six calendar days.

Voters needing a photo ID may get one free from PennDOT, but must show a Social Security card and either a birth certificate with a raised seal, a certificate of U.S. citizenship or certificate of naturalization plus two proofs of residency, such as a utility bill or a lease agreement. 

Summary: What voters need to knowabout Voter ID

Official Guide: PENNSYLVANIA’S VOTERID LAW: A Guide to ACT 18 of 2012

THE PARTISAN SHARADE

It is not difficult to recognize that the recent surge in voter ID laws around the country is a ploy by Republicans to reduce Democratic voter turnout in this year’s presidential election, and the same strategy is in play in Pennsylvania.  Tom Warnke has expressed it well in a recent letter:

So let me get this straight. This commonwealth faces unprecedented cuts to education on all levels, has a crumbling infrastructure that makes any trip across any bridge potentially life-threatening, and cannot come to grips with the fact that we have a major revenue source in an extraction tax for Marcellus Shale natural gas.

Yet, our wonderfully dysfunctional state Legislature has authorized upward of $4 million to mandate voter identification to solve a problem that doesn't exist. This is nothing more than an attempt to disenfranchise those voters most likely to vote for Democrats, in particular minorities and the elderly. There will be legal challenges to this law….

OBSTACLES FOR VOTERS

The law sounds simple and convenient as advocates of the law claim; but as Theresa Sicuro points out, you might need help to guide you through the maze on the state website:

The Division of Vital Records on its website states you must present valid government-issued photo identification (i.e., valid driver's license or nondriver photo ID to obtain the birth certificate with the raised seal). Here is a statement from a second site: "If you do not have acceptable photo identification, an eligible requestor possessing government-issued photo ID may apply. If an eligible requestor is unable to apply, you may submit a completed Statement from Requestors Not Possessing Acceptable Government Issued Photo ID with two documents verifying your current address." This certainly makes it clear, simple and convenient!

I checked out the Division of Vital Records website and did find it rather confusing as Theresa said. However, I located a form called Statement from RequestorsNot Possessing an Acceptable Government Issued Photo-ID - HD1123F (REV 11/07) which actually seemed to be a somewhat reasonable accommodation to someone who could not provide a photo ID to obtain their Pennsylvania birth certificate. Getting a Pennsylvania birth certificate should be the least of the problems for those who were born in Pennsylvania and know in advance about the voter ID law, although the cost will be a problem for those who are economically disadvantaged, and there will not be a reasonable time to produce it along with the other requirements should a voter only discover the requirements of the law on Election day this November. 

But this is not the only inconvenience.  Even if one lives close enough to a state office where one can get their photo ID in person—and not everyone does—they may still face obstacles to discourage them from voting, such as those reported on 4/19/2012 by Clint Van Dusen:

On a recent Tuesday morning I went to the ID card driver's licensing center [AAA East Liberty Pittsburgh] …so I could have a photo ID to vote for President Barack Obama in November. My current photo ID card (I no longer drive; I bike) expires April 30. The AAA cashier asked me for $28.50. I said I don't have that kind of money. Then she said go Downtown to 708 Smithfield St for the photo ID/driver's licensing center down there. She said it would cost $13.50. I had work to do that day, but I caught a bus….  At 708 Smithfield St., the entrance guard asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted to renew my photo ID card so I could vote. My photo ID card expires April 30. He said I have to wait until three days before the expiration date to renew my card -- April 27, 28 or 29. All that work for nothing. I sprinted to get another bus again, the 71B, to get to work midmorning. How are enough Obama voters going to get to vote in November? I am extremely worried. What Gov. Tom Corbett and the GOP have instituted is a kind of poll tax. Pennsylvania should pay for our ID cards to allow all the people of Pennsylvania to vote.

There is no way that any backer of this law can claim that it is convenient for a person to have to renew their state issued photo ID only within 3 days of the renewal date.  But it appears that he was given incorrect information by the “entrance guard” at the PennDOT office on Smithfield St. since the renewal form forPennsylvania Photo ID says  “Fee: $13.50 for 4 years, current Photo ID must be within six months of expiring in order to renew early.”  Unfortunately, what seems like plain English to me has not always been seen that way to people I have met who are in charge of various operations.

There is only one thing about the scenario of requiring photo ID to vote that is humorous.  There was a day not long ago when it was right wing conservatives who were against anything that could possibly lead to widespread acceptance of every person being required to receive the “mark of the beast.”  Now it is those very conservatives who are behind the movement virtually forcing the entire population to register for photo ID’s which will go into giant databases, taking us one step to that dreaded mark!

DISINGENUOUS IMPLEMENTATION

The Pennsylvania law just passed this year and is intended to be in place for the presidential elections in November 2012. Supposedly there has been a preparation of voters in the primaries even though it is widely known that voting levels in primaries are far below national elections, and registered party members vote in Pennsylvania primaries rather than independent voters.

Many registered voters who have been voting regularly all their lives may not be aware of the new law. Many people no longer follow TV news, and newspaper subscriptions are at an all-time low. For some their main news seems to be on the magazine cover pages at the supermarket checkout!

To compensate for this probable ignorance of the law, lawmakers have magnanimously allowed for a six day grace period after casting a provisional ballot on Election Day to produce the required voter ID.  Obviously only those who already have the state issued photo ID will usually be able to produce it in that short amount of time.  But those who do not have it will be hard pressed to come up with it and produce it in time, especially if they have lost either of the required documents to obtain it and need to order replacements.  


For a typical person this means completing the following processing within six days, after first obtaining the replacement birth certificate and/or social security card if they are lost…

Voters who don't have driver's licenses can obtain a non-driver Pennsylvania photo ID from the Department of Transportation at no cost, but they need to present an original copy of their birth certificate and Social Security card, plus two proofs of residency such as a lease or current utility bill, to verify their identity. (mcall)

And of course, they not only have to obtain these documents, but then present them to the county election officials within six days of Election Day.  That’s a tall order. Could make you feel like the state does not want you to vote.

If the state wanted to be fair about this, they would have implemented this at the second national election from now, the midterm elections in 2014, using the first national election to prepare voters at the polls with instructions or even a handout. Most major laws are given adequate lead time, but this is obviously a rush job.

NON-PHOTO ID HASSLES

Some religious groups such as the Amish and some Mennonites object to being photographed, and Pennsylvania has attempted to respect their convictions. Jan Murphy describes their plight: In the past, the Amish have submitted a letter from their bishop affirming their membership in that religious order instead of completing the affidavit to get the [non-photo] ID card.” 

[Now] “To get a nonphoto ID for religious reasons, applicants must answer a series of 18 questions that delve deeply into their faiths and other personal information… 

The first item on PennDOT’s form asks applicants to “describe your religion.” It is followed by more questions that devout followers might struggle to answer, and some that inquire about the lives of family members.

How many members are there of your religion?

How many congregations?

What’s the process by which you came to the religion?

What religious practices do you observe?

Do other family members hold the same religious beliefs?

Submitting that form, once notarized, is not enough. Applicants must fill out another form.

If they lack proof of identification, yet another form must be completed before a nonphoto ID is issued. The ID is valid for four years, and the renewal process is simpler.

According to Jan Murphy, these new procedures are created based on legal counsel: “A PennDOT spokeswoman said the forms for a non-photo ID have existed for a year. PennDOT spokeswoman Jan McKnight said the questions on the affidavit were created by the agency’s lawyers based on federal and state case law.”

Whether or not the extensive new procedures for obtaining the Pennsylvania non-photo ID for religious reasons are justified, the fact that this non-photo ID is now required for voting rather than the usual voting registration card creates another unneeded obstacle discouraging voter participation.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Pennsylvania legislature has created many barriers against voting in Pennsylvania, all in the name of protecting voting integrity. They have not rushed through this hastily enacted legislation because of a significant number of documented breaches of voting integrity. No rash of voting irregularities makes thislegislation urgent. Even a cursory look at the circumstances makes it obvious that this is political maneuvering—with the election of a Republican governor, Republicans just got the ability to pass this legislation and they did so. What bothers me most is that I believe many of those who are used to being in power are so used to strong-arming their own way that they are oblivious of reality. They do not seek the common good but only the good of their party.

It is still worth standing up for the truth, however, and I think Judy Lang has said it as well as anyone I’ve seen so far (although she fails to mention the financial burden on financially stressed individuals and families that cannot afford the cost of providing the documentation that is required if they lack it):

We already have a verifiable identification process in place by requiring voters to place their signature in the voters book prior to voting. I think most people would agree that forging a signature is not something easy to do or done frequently.

Additionally, requiring a photo ID places an excess burden on the elderly and disabled who already have a difficult time reaching the polls. Frail senior citizens who show up to the polls without the required ID may find themselves confused and/or unable to go home, get the required ID, and come back to vote. Simply put, our elected officials should be looking at ways to turn people on to voting, not off.

Privatized Social Security & Elder Welfare

It does not take a genius to realize that privatizing Social Security under any formula will result in the increased demand for welfare services for the aged when the generation with those privatized benefits is due to receive them.  The nature of the stock market is such that some of those people will have failed in their investments and they will need help—more help than those who are receiving the standard Social Security benefit. 

Some of those under the privatized option may do better; but others will do worse, and they will need welfare services which the government will have to supply if they are not to become a blight on those around them.

Not only that, privatization of Social Security invites wasting the investment of capital in our national welfare through the Social Security program, whatever its shortcomings.  Let me illustrate by analogy.

The other day some of my family ate at the Grandview Buffet in the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh.  Since we had not been there before, we walked through the casino section to see what it was like. None of us had ever been to it before, or used slot machines.  My son saw a machine that took dollar bills and put in a $5 bill and began pushing buttons, which made the machine display different pictures and messages which did not really make much sense, except that eventually we figured the game was over.  He wondered whether he should try again, but he decided against it since none of us knew how it worked.

For those who do not know what they are doing, privatization of Social Security will be the same thing: many people will not know how to manage accounts in the private market, although undoubtedly there will be many offers of assistance available to them. I cannot imagine a constitutionally valid way of barring individuals from claiming the right to manage their Social Security accounts if they are privatized; and the more they are warned about the dangers, the more some individuals may claim that right.

We have the right to fail and to become a burden on society.  The purpose of Social Security is to be the end of the line in that process, at least to some extent. Privatizing Social Security would frustrate that intent and betray what the U.S. Constitution calls the federal government’s responsibility to promote the general welfare.

Want to Help? Serve with Care and Communication

In what turned out to be his final gift to the world, Jean-Domnique Bauby relayed his impressions of and responses to hospital workers who were responsible for caring for him.  Although only in his early 40’s, he suffered a stroke which left him totally paralyzed except for the ability to blink his left eye and slightly move his head back and forth.  Since he had been the editor-in-chief of a major French magazine, a publisher arranged for a transcriber to decode and record his thoughts for the book we read in English as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  He died a few days after it was published about a year after the stroke.  The book has also been made into an award-winning movie by the same title.

The book records an imaginative and rich inner life that the film only partly captures, though the film situates the story in its French setting which will greatly assist Americans reading the book, though it does seem to take some unexplained liberties. 

In this post I want to highlight Bauby’s general comments about hospital staff. He makes particular comments here and there throughout the book, but the comments referred to here have had an effect on me because in them he struggles with his profound dependency on those who are being paid to help him.

We learn about ourselves when we encounter those in extreme need because it forces us to either face the possibility that we could someday be in the same position—or we may choose to ignore our feelings, in effect to suppress them. I work in a hospital; but I only occasionally remember that if I live long enough, I too, will one day be one of those unknown patients being pushed around in a wheelchair.  This book has challenged me to question how I think about those who are unable to communicate normally.

I think Bauby has given his readers a gift.  He has illustrated how hard it is to be in such great need, and how angry it makes a person.  Yet he shows how forgiving a needy person can be in spite of that anger when we continue to act with even just a degree of care and responsibility. We do not have to be perfect and we can accept each other when we are far from perfect. Yet we can still aspire to do better!

Here are the key excerpts from the 1997 edition…

As the weeks go by, this forced solitude has allowed me to acquire a certain stoicism and to realize that the hospital staff are of two kinds: the majority, who would not dream of leaving the room without first attempting to decipher my SOS messages; and the less conscientious minority, who make their getaway pretending not to notice my distress signals. Like that heartless oaf who switched off the Bordeaux-Munich soccer game at halftime, saying "Good night!" with a finality that left no hope of appeal. (p. 40-41)

 At first some of the staff had terrified me. I saw them only as my jailers, as accomplices in some awful plot. Later I hated some of them, those who wrenched my arm while putting me in my wheelchair, or left me all night long with the TV on, or let me lie in a painful position despite my protests. For a few minutes or a few hours I would cheerfully have killed them. Later still, as time cooled my fiercest rages, I got to know them better. They carried out as best they could their delicate mission: to ease our burden a little when our crosses bruised our shoulders too painfully. (p. 110)

…I realized that I was fond of all these torturers of mine. (p. 111)