Voting bill hits Senate

Students might have to make mental notes to bring their college IDs or licenses to the voting… Students might have to make mental notes to bring their college IDs or licenses to the voting polls with them if House Bill 934 gets passed.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, requires that all voters provide a valid government-issued photo ID — from either the state or federal government — before they vote at the polls. The language of the bill has recently been changed to permit college IDs as an acceptable form of identification.

The bill’s critics say its terms have the potential to disenfranchise historically marginalized voting groups, but its supporters think it could decrease voting fraud.

The bill is an amendment to the current Pennsylvania Elections Code, created in 1937, which established standards such as dates and procedures for elections in the state, but doesn’t currently require Pennsylvania voters to show ID at the polls unless they are first-time voters.

The House passed Bill 934 in June, and it currently sits in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Once the committee amends the bill, the Senate will vote on it. If the bill passes in the Senate, Gov. Tom Corbett must sign it in order for it to become a law.

The bill was proposed in the House over the summer, and its original form said that all voters must show a photo ID with an up-to-date address. Out-of-state college students might not have Pennsylvania licenses, and the bill said nothing about college IDs being an acceptable form of identification at the polls.

The legislature amended the bill, and it now allows students to use their college IDs as photo identification when voting, as long as the ID’s photo is up to date and the card has an expiration date listed on it.

Rep. Tim Krieger, R-Westmoreland County, cosponsored the bill, which he said will combat voting fraud in cities across the state.

“In my constituency, when you go to your polling place, there’s a good chance that one of the workers will know who you are,” Krieger said. “In Philadelphia, though, it’s much more difficult for individual voters to be recognized.”

Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Pittsburgh, whose constituency encompasses a large portion of Pittsburgh, including Oakland, said implenting the bill would cost between $10 million to $12 million, which would be needed to pay for new ID cards for those who do not have them, informing the electorate of the changes and providing new training for poll workers.

Frankel said that the bill is simply an “oppression technique” used by the Republican Party in the state to disenfranchise minorities that include the elderly citizens and the poor.

“The bill is an approach to manipulate the election,” Frankel said, noting that members of the groups less likely to have valid IDs often vote Democrat in elections.

Krieger said that he did not understand the Democrats’ argument that the bill would disenfranchise voting groups, saying that the bill had bipartisan support, including several

Democratic cosponsors. He added that college students and the elderly could use their university and assisted living facility IDs at the polls.

Across the United States, bills similar to House Bill 934 have risen in prominence in response to perceived increases in voter fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice recently overruled a bill requiring voters to present photographic identification cards in South Carolina, saying that the law would make voting more difficult for minority voting groups.

Krieger said that the U.S. Department of Justice’s ruling on the South Carolina voter identification bill was “aggressive” and added that he did not know anyone who did not own some form of photo identification.

The bill also received criticism from private organizations not associated with the Pennsylvania State Legislature.

Andy Hoover, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said that Republicans in the state House were using “urban legends” to make their case for rampant voter fraud in the state.

“There is bipartisan opposition to the bill in the state Congress,” Hoover said. “Legislators know that they are all responsible in allowing citizens to vote.”

Hoover said that voter fraud in the state of Pennsylvania is extremely rare, and added that in states with similar voter identification laws, on average, the cost to the state is increased by 50 percent.

He also said that unlike South Carolina, Pennsylvania does not include a mandate that requires clearance from the federal department prior to altering election laws.

While the battle over the bill rages on in Harrisburg, academics turn their attention to the implications of mandatory identification at the polls.

Mimi Marziani, an adjunct assistant professor of public policy at New York University, said that NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice found that 11 percent of voters nationally do not have photo identification.

Marziani said that requiring photo identification only remedies in-person voting fraud, a form that is rare because those found guilty face up to a $10,000 fine and jail time. She added that it wouldn’t make sense for voters to do this since their vote is seemingly inconsequential. She also said that Pennsylvania does not have a problem with voter fraud by any means.

“I don’t think that four cases of voter fraud over six years presents much of an issue in the grand scheme of things,” Marziani said.