In the world of partisan politics, one person’s New Black Panther is another’s misinformed poll worker. Reports of voter intimidation, missing names, and other mishaps at the polls on Nov. 6 have sparked a duel in the Capitol over which unresolved Election Day issues should be investigated, and for what. A Democratic Philadelphia legislator wants state and federal prosecutors to investigate what she calls “voting irregularities” reported at polling places around the state.
State Rep. Babette Josephs said reports of voter intimidation, poll workers wrongly demanding photo identification, and faulty voting machines added up to evidence of “shameful” denials of voting rights.
“The widespread nature and the large numbers of these reports make it clear that the state and many counties did not properly educate poll workers,” Josephs, ranking minority member of the state government committee, wrote in a letter Wednesday to state Attorney General Linda Kelly and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Meanwhile, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler), said he was gathering his own reports of election violations, such as the purported member of the New Black Panther Party seen at a Philadelphia polling place, and the mural of President Obama on the wall of a school that served as a polling place. (Republicans complained, and a judge ordered it covered.)
Full Article: Pa. lawmakers seek probes of Election Day irregularities.