Fast Eddie’s In Trouble
Ed Rendell is in big trouble and he’s definitely scrambling. Here’s why: The AP’s Marc Levy has written an article about the new legislation that the Pennsylvania Senate passed requiring “Pennsylvania voters to show some form of identification at the polls or be forced to cast a provisional ballot.” The Pennsylvania House had already passed a similar bill. If the House adopts this bill, then it goes to Gov. Rendell, who can then veto it or sign it.
If he signs it, which isn’t at all certain, that means he could lose thousands of votes he’d get from out-of-staters and dead people. If he doesn’t sign it, Lynn Swann and the Pennsylvania GOP will use that veto like a billy club on him from the minute he vetoes it straight to Election Day.
Here’s what Kate Philips, Rendell’s press secretary, is quoted as saying “The governor is concerned that identification requirements may discourage people from voting and eventually disenfranchise people.”
Anyone around here buying that disenfranchisement argument? Here’s how I’d translate that quote: “Gov. Rendell needs all the fraudulent votes he can get. Anything that stands in his way of that is something that he’d have grave concerns about. It shouldn’t matter if the legislation makes sense. Anything that stands in the way of that will be framed in civil rights language, even if the most important factor in it is running clean elections.”
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRing
December 31st, 2005 at 7:00 pm
If someone isn’t willing to put forward the simple effort of getting an ID to ensure a fair election then they don’t care enough about their state to have their vote counted.