Mar 21, 2006 3 min read

In this day and age it’s not unreasonable to expect someone to possess a valid form of identification, so we find it hard to agree with Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s veto of a Republican-led voter ID bill. In rejecting the bill, Rendell launched into the familiar diatribe about disenfranchising the poor, along with displaced families and the all-important nursing home vote. Let’s be real here. How many poor people do you know who don’t possess at least one of the following? Driver’s license, U.S. passport, student/employee/government ID, county voter registration card, firearm permit, current utility bill, or current bank statement, paycheck or government check.

As for nursing home residents, our educated guess is that many if not most of them would be eligible to cast absentee ballots, a process that doesn’t even require them to show up at the polls. Outside of a major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, how many displaced families have you ever seen who haven’t been able to produce at least one of the above-mentioned items?

The Republicans who control the state House and state Senate passed the legislation with the purpose of combating voter fraud. Opponents – including Democrats, county prosecutors and election officials – said instances of voter fraud are rare, if not nonexistent. Did they have their fingers crossed behind their backs when uttering that statement?

National and regional attention was focused on Fayette County just a few short years ago, when absentee voter fraud at a personal care home led to grand jury indictments against three people, including former U.S. Representative Austin J. Murphy. The sickening shenanigans also created some very irate family members and legal guardians who felt their loved ones had been victimized. They would most assuredly tell you that voter fraud is not rare, nor is it nonexistent.

Are we to believe that in big cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh – and even in smaller ones like Erie, Harrisburg and, yes, Uniontown – that everyone casting a ballot is whom he or she says? Under the current system it’s far more likely that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of votes are illegally cast than it is that voter fraud is rare or nonexistent.

You’d have to either be a fool or a beneficiary of lax voter identification practices to think otherwise. The Republicans sought a common sense approach to ensuring the sanctity of elections, and they were shot down by the governor’s veto.

Sam Smith, the House Republican leader, said of his party’s effort:”We are fighting to ensure that every vote counts and counts just once.” We all know what he was talking about – and he’s correct.

It would be one thing if the GOP was seeking to impose a thoroughly restrictive mechanism on voting, such as requiring you to produce your birth certificate. It’s quite another when their bill allows practically every form of ID under the sun.

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