If Pennsylvania signs a contentious new bill into law, the process of voting is about to become very difficult for over 700,000 of the state’s residents. On June 24, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the controversial voter ID proposition also known as House Bill 934.
House Republicans had forced the vote on the bill, which, if passed by the Senate, could potentially disenfranchise about 700,000 otherwise eligible Pennsylvanians.
House Bill 934 would require all voters to show a valid, unexpired photo identification to prove citizenship.
While advocates of the voter ID bill assert that it would prevent voter fraud in polling booths, those opposed to the idea point out that, as state Rep. Ron Waters (D. Phila/Delaware) noted, the bill is a “solution without a problem”.
In the same statement, Rep. Waters continued, “The bill’s sponsor claims that it is needed to fight voter fraud. But in the past 10 years, there have been fewer than two dozen voter fraud convictions in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing; and that’s out of 39.4 million ballots cast.”
Source: Philadelphia Jewish Voice:: Controversy over Voter ID Bill Hits Pennsylvania.