Pennsylvania doesn't need new voter ID law

By Kathryn Boockvar, themorningcall.com, April 7, 2009

The state Senate State Government Committee recently tabled a bill that would require photo IDs for all voters after scores of voters across the state expressed concerns about the burdens imposed by the bill. Some senators have expressed interest in revising the bill and giving it further consideration, but the Senate should listen to the voters and throw out the bill altogether.

ID supporters claim we need photo ID to ''protect the vote.'' Yet, this requirement would endanger the vote for many voters, and would accomplish little or nothing in return. Legislators should learn from the doctors' oath: First, do no harm. These additional ID requirements are unnecessary due to protections already in place.

When people register to vote, all their information is entered into a database. Election offices run extensive checks on this data. They compare the applicant's Social Security or driver's license number to Social Security or PennDOT databases; check street maps to ensure the address is a residence; check the statewide voter database to ensure she is not registered elsewhere.

On top of all these checks, when any voter votes for the first time in any precinct, she must show ID. Every election, she must be listed in the poll book and have her signature checked. If she is not listed or her signature doesn't match, she can only vote provisionally, and her vote won't count if, once again, her identity, residency, or eligibility cannot be verified. Additionally, if a poll worker has good reason to doubt the identity of a voter, the voter can be challenged and must prove her identity in order to vote.

Our system's effectiveness is demonstrated by the lack of reports of impersonation voter fraud, the only kind of fraud that could be prevented by an ID law. Call your local election office and ask how often they've had a voter trying to impersonate someone else. You'll come up pretty.

Since there's no measurable problem and the system is already designed to prevent fraud, let's balance this against the harm the proposed requirements would cause. Approximately 11 percent of voting-age Americans do not have current government photo IDs. These percentages are even higher among women, senior citizens, disabled voters, voters of color, and college students (who may have ID from a different locale than their college).

About 18 percent of senior citizens do not have current photo ID. Some studies indicate this percentage increases with age, as seniors become less likely to drive or have current passports. Nearly 25 percent of African Americans, and 15 percent of poor Americans do not have current photo ID.

I vote at a retirement community, with about 1,100 registered voters. The majority of the senior voters are well known to the poll workers. Most have been voting in the same location, their community center, for many years. If an older or disabled voter appears to vote without a current photo ID, no matter how well the poll workers know her the proposed law would force poll workers to send her away without voting.

A photo ID requirement would not ''protect the vote'' of these senior voters, disabled voters, and poor voters. It would needlessly force them to re-register; to travel to non-accessible buildings; or to pay for or take time off from work or family, to get ID only needed twice a year. Furthermore, an ID requirement would cause significantly longer election day lines for all voters.

Rather than working on harmful and unnecessary laws, the Pennsylvania Legislature should create laws that uphold Pennsylvania as a model of accessibility, not as an example of disenfranchisement.

First, do no harm.

Kathryn Boockvar is a senior attorney with Advancement Project, a national civil and voting rights organization based in Washington, D.C.

www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-c.6845588apr07,0,294517.story