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Harrisburg Republicans fail - for now - to fix a nonexistent problem with voter ID legislation
Pennsylvania Republicans have delayed trying to pass new voter identification requirements until 2012, when (and just in time for a big election) they will again attempt to combat the (almost) nonexistent problem of voter fraud with legislation that just happens to overwhelmingly affect people who tend to vote Democrat.
Harrisburg Republicans fail — for now — to fix a nonexistent problem with voter ID legislation
Pennsylvania Republicans have delayed trying to pass new voter identification requirements until 2012, when (and just in time for a big election) they will again attempt to combat the (almost) nonexistent problem of voter fraud with legislation that just happens to overwhelmingly affect people who tend to vote Democrat.
Why is voter fraud an almost-nonexistent problem? Because there's virtually no evidence it happens — especially in Pennsylvania.
Just ask the U.S. Department of Justice which, at the behest of president George W. Bush, conducted a five-year investigation into voter fraud and found a whopping total of 120 cases nationwide — and chose to prosecute only 86 of them.
So non-existent is the problem of voter fraud in Pennsylvania that PA Senate State Government Committee Chairman Charles Mcllhinney, who's helped lead the charge for new voter ID laws, admitted to Fox News that "He has seen no proof that people are casting ballots illegally," as mentioned in this article from thinkprogress.org, — and even as Mcllhinney pushes anyway for restrictions that *lots* of evidence says will suppress the votes of elderly and poor people — especially poor people of color.
Who tend to vote Democrat.
A brief by the New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice points out, among other things that:
* Restrictive voter identification policies - especially those that require state-issued photo ID cards - threaten to exclude millions of eligible voters.
* As many as 10% of eligible voters do not have, and will not get, the documents required by strict voter ID laws. For some groups, the percentage is much higher.
* ID requirements fall hardest on people who have traditionally faced barriers at the polls.
* ID requirements are not justified by any serious or widespread problem.
* There is no reason for states to implement burdensome ID requirements.
* States that do require proof of identity at the polls should permit an expansive range of proof.
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