Letter Governor Pennsylvania Expressing Position Voting Laws PA Disadvantage Minorities

¶ … Mr. Corbett

I am writing to express concern about the new Pennsylvania voting laws. You are undoubtedly no stranger to the media's coverage of the laws, which could cause as many as 700,000 -- three-quarters of a million -- voters under the age of thirty to become disenfranchised. The non-white residents of Pennsylvania are the ones most directly affected by the new law, which is why I am writing to express my condemnation and to request, as your constituent, that the law be stricken from the books.

The law's most notable provision is that it requires voters to present a photo identification. A significantly large proportion of legal state residents -- well over a million people -- do not have photo identification for one reason or another. Generally, persons who are African-American and Latino are the least likely to have a photo ID (Froomkin). As a result, African-Americans and Latinos and are the hardest hit by the new law. The impact will be extraordinary. Keeping the new law in place would, given the statistics on photo identification, be equivalent to the state practicing discrimination openly.

Instead, voting laws in our state should reflect the realities of the residents. It just so happens that a large proportion of our state's residents do not have a photo ID -- a status that is not a crime. Many people who do not have photo ID simply do not need it -- because they cannot afford a car and therefore do not need a driver's license; or because they cannot afford to go to college and therefore do not have a college identification card. It would appear that the push to require voters to present a photographic identification is a deliberate political measure to disenfranchise the poor and minority constituents who are the most likely to vote for Democratic canditates.

As Froomkin puts it, "Republicans across the country have been pushing for stricter voter ID rules at polling places as one of a series of measures ostensibly intended to address the issue of voter fraud," (1). Yet "in-person voter fraud, in particular, is incredibly rare," (Froomkin 1). Moreover, the persons least likely to possess photo identification happen to be registered democrats or demographically more likely to vote democrat -- making it seem suspicious that the new law is strongly supported by Republicans.

Thankfully, the Pennsylvania judiciary did the right thing when, in October of 2012, it "blocked the key component" of the law by eliminating the photo ID provision (Bronner 1). It is not a matter of partisanship but of common sense, fairness, and social justice. Our lawmakers have a responsibility to create voting regulations that encourage civic participation, and promote the principles of democracy. The principles of democracy thrive when all citizens are encouraged, not discouraged, to vote. It is expressly unfair to prevent people from voting simply because they do not have a photo ID. The process by which one must acquire a photo ID is tedious, time consuming, and expensive.