Roadblocks at the Ballot Box: Legislature Passes Pennsylvania Anti-Voting Rights Act
February 17th, 2006 by PapaSkaroffRemember the first time you voted and had to show your ID? There’s new legislation requiring voters to remember to bring proper ID at every election. The state Senate and Assembly passed House Bill 1318 on party-line votes– with Republicans in favor of cracking down on teens who haven’t gotten drivers’ licenses, little old ladies with wallets left at home on their dressers, renters and low-income folks who don’t get utilities bills; and with Democrats willing to let just any ol’ registered voter actually cast a ballot.
The legislation, if signed by Gov. Ed Rendell, will make for longer, slower lines at the polls. Expect angry scenes as voters, accustomed to the current convenience of the matching-signature rule, get turned away due to the new technicalities. Y’know, voting’s becoming too much of a hassle. I’m gonna just stay home. Tuesday nights … American Idol’s on at 8.
Or maybe I’ll tell the Governor that erecting barriers to voting is bad law, and he should veto H.B. 1318. These two sites have lists of ways to contact him: first and second.
State Rep. Babette Josephs of Philadelphia is a vocal critic of the bill, for both the damage it will do as well as the needed electoral reforms is fails to address. She says,
I am working on real problems that have occurred in recent elections: unworkable statutory deadlines which led to military ballots being received too late to be counted; long lines at polling places; widespread intimidation of minority voters; coordinated efforts to mislead voters as to the date of the election or the location of polling places, and phony voter registration drives where registrations of one party were discarded.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
What is wrong with asking people to provide ID to prove who they are when voting? Why is it that you are afraid of this requirement? It makes sense to confirm the identification of a voter or someone could just vote in your place using your name. If you are able enough to vote, you should be able enough to have gotten yourself some form of ID. You cant register your vehicle without ID, why should you be able to register to vote without one?
You make it seem that Republicans are the one’s who have historically disenfranchised voters, especially black voters, when in fact the Republicans have a far better Civil Rights voting record than the Democrats. Look it up for yourself as the information is easy to come by. In the Voting Rights Act of 65 and the Civil Rights Act of 64 only 61% of Democrats voted for it, while 85% of Republicans voted in favor. Condi Rice often speaks about how her father was made to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar before he could vote in Alabama back when southern Democrats were in charge. End result - he could not vote. Who was in charge down south back then? You guessed it - The Dems.
I truly hope that folks in this country, especially the supposedly “Educated Voters”, begin to research the facts and see the truth behind the lies the Democrats have been feeding them for years. Look at the Senators, Congressmen, Mayors and Governors in the South during the times of Slavery and Segregation and you will see that they were all Democrats and they fought tooth and nail to disenfranchise a certain group of voters. Forty Acres and A Mule was a reality until Lincoln was killed and the Dems took back over. Once again - this is a fact. You can find it in the chapters not covered by your college professors.
Additionally, follow the progress of the folks who live in Republican areas as compared to areas run by Democrats. There is more crime, poverty, teen pregnancy, unwed mothers, etc. in states, cities and towns run by Democrats than there is in areas run by Republicans. That is not opinion, it is fact. But as in most cases, Democrats would rather make excuses than face facts.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
And all of those bigoted and racist Democrats? They became Republicans. Today’s Democratic party is not the Southern party of the past. Republicans may be the party of Lincoln, but if Abe was alive today, he’d be a Democrat.