Democracy Has Prevailed.

September 13, 2012

All Ye Rogues, Strumpets and Pestilent Hordes: State Supreme Court Hearing on PA Voter ID Law is Today!

PCN will be live televising and live streaming today's 9:30 AM Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's oral argument session, which includes hearings on the state’s second legislative redistricting plan and the Voter ID (suppression) law (Channel 48 on Comcast Cable).

This was the law that a PA judge upheld largely based on a bigoted 1869 case called Patterson v. Barlow. Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Amazingly, in Patterson the Supreme Court went out of its way to clarify -- and endorse -- the law's biased approach. The opinion justifies a tougher process for Philadelphia voters because "rogues and strumpets do not nightly traverse the deserted highways of the farmer. Low inns, restaurants, sailors' boarding-houses and houses of ill fame do not abound in rural precincts, ready to pour out on election day their pestilent hordes."  
For good measure, the court explained that to overturn the tighter procedures for Philadelphia voters "would be to place the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar hordes of our large cities, on a level with the virtuous and good man."
These days, we simply call them Obama voters:


Even if the Court were to overturn the law -- which they won't -- we have this to worry about:
True the Vote and other Tea Party-affiliated groups are reportedly recruiting 1 million volunteers to object to the qualifications of voters in targeted communities on and before Election Day, according to the study. These volunteers are being rallied to block, in their own words, the “illegal alien vote” and “the food stamp army.” Their stated goal is to make the experience of voting “like driving and seeing the police behind you.”
If you need information on the new Voter Suppression Law, or if you need help in getting ID, please check out the following:
http://www.866ourvote.org/  
http://www.seventy.org/Elections_Voter_ID.aspx  
http://www.aclupa.org/issues/votingissues/voterid/
Or if all else fails, better hope your kid is a celebrity!

4 comments:

Conservative Mountaineer said...

I assume you liberals opposing this Law:
- Don't drive,
- Don't purchase liquor,
- Don't purchase cigarettes,
- Don't purchase cigars,
- Don't fly,
- Don't cash checks,
- Don't deposit checks,
- Don't write checks,
- Don't use a credit card (yes, some merchants require an ID, especially for large purchases).

Personally, I strngly believe that noone should be allowed to vote if they cannot prove they are a CITIZEN. No 'motor voter'. No 'provisional ballot'. Produce a birth certificate at least, say, 60 days ahead of an election to obtain a voter registration ID.

I'm also somewhat sympathetic to some sort of mental capacity requirement. If a 'voter' is slobbering all over themselves in their wheelchair and don't even know what day it is or where they are.. no vote. Yes, I saw that in 2008. The 'voter' was their helper. IMHO, that 'voter helper' voted twice.

Plus, no 'vote by mail', no 'early votong' or 'vote by Internet'. If you can't get up and get out to vote in person, TS. Plenty of options are available to assist those that need assistance to get to the polls.

Go ahead, flame me. I don't give a rats patooey. We have to many freeloaders who ONLY concern is making sure their government teat continues to provide for them.

Unknown said...

@CM

Your first mistake: "I assume...." Who most likely doesn't do any of these things? Senior citizens. My wife's grandfather didn't do any of these things for the last 2 years of his life (he died at 90 years of age). He was not demented; he was simply too feeble to go out on his own much. He had already turned over his financial affairs to one of his daughters. And he damn well was going to vote. He died too long ago to be affected by this PA law. There are other senior citizens who lost their birth certificates decades ago, have been voting regularly ever since, and now suddenly have to produce documentation they no longer have in order to get a photo ID. How many of these people are there? I suppose not very many, although I found a story about at least one here.

What is the relative percentage of fine, upstanding people who just happen to be caught in a situation where getting the proper ID is difficult vs. those who are not citizens and shouldn't be allowed to vote? Who knows, and who cares? Seriously, where is the evidence that there is any voter fraud to prevent? Where is the evidence that illegal immigrants are turning up at polling places on election day? Produce the damned evidence! The state attorney general couldn't. What, has he been ignoring your offers of assistance?

Photo ID is a good idea. It's even a good idea to require it for voting, provided everyone who is eligible to vote and wants to can get one on time without extraordinary difficulty. There is no good reason the legislature had to make this requirement apply in 2012. Mike Turzai explained the real reason already: the voter ID law will allow Romney to win PA. How is that possible? No more Democratic nurse's aides voting on behalf of slobbering senior citizens suffering from dementia? No more Democratic ward leaders walking into polling places 20 times each to vote on behalf of dead ward residents? C'mon! Without evidence of such things, what's left, except that lots of eligible Democratic voters will be unable to vote?

I'll give you this: "no 'vote by mail.'" That cuts out a lot of military people who tend to vote Republican. Funny, the legislature didn't do anything about possible voter fraud via absentee ballot.

Maria said...

CM:

First of all, none of these things you mentioned are RIGHTS as is voting.

Secondly, as Dean states, the elderly don't do many of these things, but even when they do say, buy cigs, or liquor or use a check from a checking account they've likely had for many years prior to the advent of photo ID (or had photo ID until the last few years), they don't need photo ID.

Thirdly, you better hope you never get old. There is not plenty of assistance for people to get to the polls and your confusuion of a lack of physical abilty with a lack of mental abilty is disgusting.

EdHeath said...

CM, no "vote by mail"? You are right, soldiers overseas fighting for our freedoms should be stripped of the right to vote.