[EL] PA Sec of Commonwealth study on ID ownership

[John Tanner]

I have not seen the studies.  Based on GA and IN, the high figure probably
compares the total number of drivers licenses and non-drivers IDs held by
those 18+ with the census population: in GA and IN that number actually
slightly exceeded the census estimates of VAP eligible to have an eligible
ID from the DMV.  This clearly is not a "hard" analysis - military, students
and other people counted by census as living in PA may have out-of-state
IDs, etc.; and by the same token people with PA IDs are counted in other
states; and there are other types of IDs that may qualify, such as the IDs
MARTA in Atlanta provides to persons with disabilities as proof of
eligibility for low fares.  Nor have the analyses that show very large
numbers without IDs proved at all reliable, at least in IN and GA.

It seems most likely that courts will resolve the tension between the high
and low numbers based on plaintiffs' ability to produce people who lack an
ID and who cannot get one without unreasonable difficulty.

If they require an exact name ID/registration match, there many people are
likely to have problems.

On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 9:59 AM, Megan Donovan <
mdonovan at fairelectionsnetwork.com> wrote:

> PA has a photo ID bill (HB934) that passed the House earlier this year and
> will be considered by the Senate when it comes back this fall. So one would
> expect the scope of "acceptable ID" referred to in Aichele's statement to
> conform to what would be required by the bill. However, I have not seen the
> study referred to by Aichele, nor am I sure which study is being referred
> to. It would be interesting to know how the 99% estimate was reached.
>
> PA's bill would require voters to show photo ID, defined as (I'm
> paraphrasing here)- a document that: shows the name of the individual to
> whom it was issued (with the name conforming to the register), has a photo,
> has an expiration date, is not expired or expired after the most recent
> general election, and was issued by PA or the U.S.
>
> The bill is here:
> http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/billinfo.cfm?syear=2011&sind=0&body=H&type=B&BN=0934
>
> The fiscal note for the bill says that PennDOT data indicates 3.9% of the
> voting population does not have a *state*-issued ID.
> http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/FN/2011/0/HB0934P2166.pdf
>
> An estimate of the costs of the bill put out by the Pennsylvania Budget and
> Policy Center used a 2006 PennDOT estimate of the number of individuals
> without photo ID (691,909):
> http://www.pennbpc.org/voter-mandates-costly-taxpayer#footnote-6
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Doug Hess <douglasrhess at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This quote comes from this press release by the Pennsylvania Secretary
>> of Commonwealth found at
>>
>> http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pennsylvania-secretary-of-commonwealth-photo-id-protects-integrity-of-every-vote-128242583.html
>>
>> "A Department of State analysis shows 99 percent of eligible voters
>> already have an acceptable photo ID, and providing free photo IDs to
>> every other eligible voter, should they all request one, would cost
>> just over $1 million."
>>
>> Has anybody seen this report? What level of "acceptable" did they use?
>>  According to NCSL, PA doesn't have such a requirement so what state
>> law are they using to decide that 99 percent of residents have one?
>> Here's the NCSL mape on voter ID laws http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=16602
>>
>> Doug
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>
>
>
> --
> Megan Donovan
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