Pennsylvania Enacts Strict Voter-Photo-ID Law

13 States With Similar Laws Control 70 Percent of the Electoral Votes

by Frederick H. Lowe
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has signed legislation requiring residents to show a photo ID in order to vote in the 2012 presidential election, which is expected to pose an obstacle to African-American voters, many of whom lack government-issued identification cards.

With Virginia's governor on the verge of signing similar legislation, 70 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential election will now come from states with new restrictive voting laws, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, which published “Voting Law Changes in 2012.”

Under the new law, Virginia residents would be allowed to vote if they produce a utility bill, a cable bill, a paycheck with name and address or some other form of identification. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said he will take a few weeks to study the legislation. Currently, Virginia residents can vote by signing an affidavit, certifying their identity. That, however, has been eliminated in the new legislation, said Keesha Gaskins, senior counsel at the Brennan Center.

In Pennsylvania, Corbett signed the legislation on March 14 after the Republican-controlled state legislature voted 104 to 88 to pass House Bill 934.

“I am signing this bill because it protects a sacred principle, one shared by every citizen of this nation,” Corbett said. “That principle is: one person, one vote. It sets a simple and clear standard to protect the integrity of our elections.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pennsylvania is one of nine states that have enacted strict photo-ID laws for voting. The other states are Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.  At the beginning of 2011, Indiana and Georgia were the only strict-photo-ID states, one in which the voter must show a photo ID in order to vote. If the person does not have the ID, he or she is given a provisional ballot that is counted only when he or she returns with acceptable identification.

A Judge recently ruled Wisconsin's Voter ID unconstitutional, but the state said it would appeal. On Monday, Wisconsin Circuit Judge Richard G. Niess refused to stay his ruling that invalidates the state's voter ID law.

The U.S. Justice Department blocked the voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina. Justice Department officials said the laws violated Title 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Officials of both states said they will challenge the Justice Department's decision in court.

Voter ID legislation has been a hot topic in state legislatures since 2001, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Thirty-two states have enacted one of three forms of restrictions that are expected to affect black voters disproportionally:  strict photo ID, photo ID or ID laws.

In regular photo ID states (not strict photo ID), voters are asked to show a photo ID in order to vote. If they can't produce a photo ID, they are still allowed to vote if they can show an acceptable form of identification. In non-photo ID states, a voter could show, for example, a utility bill in order to vote.

In 2006, the Brennan Center published “Citizens Without Proof: A Survey of Americans' Possession of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification,” a study that reported that 25 percent of African-American, voting-age citizens do not have current, government-issued, photo ID, compared with 8 percent of white voting-age citizens who do not have those credentials.

Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Centers' Democracy Programs and co-author of “Voting Law Changes in 2012,” said the laws represented the most-significant cutback in voting rights in a decade. “Rather than erecting senseless barriers to voting, we should make our voting system work for all Americans by upgrading our ramshackle voter registration system,” Weiser said.

She added that since the beginning of 2011, 13 states have passed or on the verge of passing restrictive voting laws that would affect the outcome of the 2012 election. The states are Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

 “The states control 189 electoral votes, or 70 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency,” Weiser said.

Republican-enacted restrictions on voting rights follows the 2008 election in which black women had the highest voter turnout among all ethnic and racial groups in the general election, a first in American voting history. 

The voter-turnout rate among black women increased 5.1 percentage points, from 63.7 percent in 2004 to 68.8 percent in 2008, according to the Pew Research Center's 2009 study titled, "Dissecting  the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History."

The voter turnout among black men increased 4.6 percent to 60.7 percent in 2008 from 56.1 percent in 2004, according to Pew Research Center.