Like most big Internet sites including this one, the Daily Kos has an email list, to which it sends messages that it feels are important. Last night, one of our operatives intercepted this very important action alert from Chris Bowers, the DKos Campaign Director.
(Operative’s name withheld), last week a judge upheld the new voter ID law in Pennsylvania. This is the law that the Pennsylvania House Republican leader said “is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania” because it potentially disenfranchises 750,000voters.Well, that’s what he thinks. A huge coalition of 100+ labor and civil rights groups has come together to do the door knocking, phone banking and voter education necessary to make sure everyone in this must-win swing state can still cast a ballot.
At Daily Kos, we’re helping out by running online ads in Pennsylvania to sign up more than 1,000 volunteers so that this coalition has the people power it needs. Please, click here to contribute $5 to Daily Kos so that we can sign up the thousands of volunteers needed to overcome Pennsylvania’s voter ID law.
To get a sense of how blatant an attempt at voter suppression this voter ID law is, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will not extend business hours or hire new staff to assist the nearly one million people who now need IDs in order to vote. Further, the contract to educate Pennsylvania voters about the law went to a public relations firm with deep ties to the Republican Party.
To stop this, we need to get thousands of volunteers on the ground working with an experienced coalition that knows how to get voters to the polls and in compliance with the new law. We can do it, but we need your help.
Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers
Campaign Director, Daily Kos
According to Campaign Director Bowers, in Pennsylvania there are one million people who do not have the photo ID that the state’s new law requires in order to vote. That law, by the way, has been upheld in court and enjoys overwhelming support in the state.
Setting that aside, could the DKos’ rendering of the numbers be true? Are there one million Pennsylvanians who might vote but lack the necessary photo ID?
According to the US Census Bureau, in 2011 Pennsylvania had 12,742,886 residents.
Of those, 21.7% are under 18 years old and therefore cannot vote. Math is hard, but let’s do some anyway. This means that 2,765,206 Pennsylvanians are not yet eligible to vote.
Subtracting that number from total population leaves 9,977,679 Pennsylvanians who are over 18 and are therefore eligible to vote. According to the Daily Kos’ Campaign Director, one million of those lack the necessary ID to vote. That’s roughly 11% of the state’s total voting-age population.
The DKos’ rendering of the numbers could be true. But the chances of them having gotten this right are vanishingly small.
They seem to be exaggerating for effect, not writing for accuracy.
Of the 9,977,679 eligible voters, how many of them have jobs and therefore provided id to their employer? And how many are recieving some kind of state aid that requires photo id to provide food and shelter to those under 18? Of these 1 million unemployed, non-unemployment/food stamp/welfare recipients living on the street, how many are concerned about voting?
The actual number, according to the judge who upheld the law, is about 80,000.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57494102/pa-upholds-controversial-voter-id-law/
Most of those one million are people who need IDs for all of the fake names they use to vote.
In the course of my proofreading work, most of the senior centers and assisted living facilites whose newsletters I proof that have citizens dealing with this law have articles about how to get their IDs. Clearly, this ID thing is not nearly the hurdle that it’s made out to be.
– know about this?
A million people with no identity? Then how does anyone know who they are?
Bingo. It’s no different than the wild numbers the liberals threw around in the 80′s about the “homeless” population or how many were dying from AIDS because Reagan didn’t care enoug; or more recently, the number of uninsured, etc., etc.
They simply pull a number out that sounds good and is nearly impossible to accurately prove or disprove. Since the MSM doesn’t question, it then becomes a “fact.”
80,000 without photo ID and 800,000 fake people that need to vote Democrat this November.
How many of those 80,000 are running around in $150 sneakers? Or paying $100 for their cable TV?
Etc, etc…
In Maryland anyone who wishes to visit the State House must submit a photo ID. Is there a single Maryland legislator who would forego this requirement? Or is their safety more important than the integrity of the electoral process?
Don’t forget to subtract aliens and those with felony convictions from your total. Both would have been counted in the Census.
I’m thinking they’re saying something like 25% of Pennsylvanians don’t have ID, which seems somewhat extreme to me.
Orion