This page was last updated on October 8, 2011.
Voter ID bill discourages many; Janet Hill; Beaver County Times; October 6, 2011.
According to Beaver County Reds, Ms. Hill is a member of “USW [United Steelworkers] staff and also a PDA [Progressive Democrats of America] member.” Previous letters of which I’m aware are “Corporations over people,” “Corbett out of touch on unemployment,” and “Abortion and breast cancer aren’t linked” (I didn’t critique this letter and it’s no longer on the BCT website.).
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“In response to the letter on voter ID, this bill discourages voting by the poor, the elderly, minorities and students because many of these people do not have a photo ID with the proper address.”
[RWC] Voting is just about the most important thing a person can do to ensure government by the people and that act deserves protection. In this day and age, if a person can’t arrange to get a valid photo ID, he doesn’t deserve to vote.
Currently, you can get a photo ID (not a driver’s license) at a PennDOT Driver License Center for $13.50 (plus $13.50 every four years to renew) and there’s no charge for a change of address. PennDOT will even notify your county voter registration office of the address change if you want. Ms. Hill failed to note this would change because the bill provides photo IDs at no cost for voters without an existing valid photo ID.
Opposing photo ID for voting has been a cause for the left seemingly forever. You can find most of my comments in the critique of the BCT editorial “The real fraud.”
“My 90-year-old mother-in-law does not have a photo ID, and she was born at home so obtaining a birth certificate is not a simple process. Yet she would be known by sight by many people in this town.
“This bill is about spending a minimum of $4.3 million in a time when this Legislature is cutting money to my child’s school to solve a non-existent problem.
“Documented cases are rare because you have to know a name, an address and that that person is not going to vote. In addition, the first time you vote you must show an ID with name and address.”
[RWC] One type of voter fraud is a two-step process. The first step is submitting fraudulent voter registrations as ACORN did. The second step is using those fraudulent registrations to vote. This method ensures the fraudulent voter “know[s] a name, an address and that that person is not going to vote.”
“A federal bill was put in place called Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and this state bill eliminates forms of IDs that are acceptable under it including a utility bill, a firearm permit, a bank statment [sic] or a government check.”
[RWC] That’s because none of them have photos.
“Let’s concentrate on real issue [sic] like the recent study that showed Diebold voting machines can be controlled by remote control.”
[RWC] While Ms. Hill used the “documented cases are rare” defense to oppose photo ID, she did not here. Why?
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