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Elections cannot be fair and free unless they are open to every eligible voter. Photo Identification requirements degrade the integrity of our elections by systematically excluding large numbers of eligible voters.
Voters who lack or can't get the required ID stand to be disenfranchised by new Voter ID requirements. A disproportionate number are African-American and Latino voters, senior citizens, people with disabilities, low-income citizens, and young voters.1 Eleven percent of the population does not have the type of identification required by these laws.2 *
Voter ID laws costs millions of dollars to implement. According to a study by the nonpartisan Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center earlier this year, HB 934 will cost Pennsylvania more than $11 million in the first year alone, with millions more every year after that.3 Legislators should confront the serious problems the state and its people face, instead of allocating funds to address a problem that does not even exist. *
Voter ID requirements will add substantial new burdens on election administrators and poll workers. Introducing a voter ID requirement will require an extensive public education campaign, including mailings, advertising and public service announcements, and added poll worker training. *
Numerous studies have found that the rare examples of voter impersonation are almost never the kind that could be prevented by a photo identification law.4 Voter ID laws address one exceedingly rare form of voter fraud: impersonation of another registered voter at the polls.*
Growing the state's economy and creating jobs should be the focus of lawmakers in Harrisburg, not voter ID. Instead of focusing on creating jobs and saving homes, some legislators are seeking to manipulate election law in a manner that will result in voter suppression and disenfranchisement. *
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1 Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Citizens Without Proof: A Survey of Americans' Possession
of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification, (Nov. 28, 2006).
2 Citizens Without Proof: A Survey Of Americans' Possession Of Documentary Proof of Citizenship And Photo Identification, Brennan Center for Justice, November 2006
3 Voter Mandates Costly to Taxpayer, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, 2011.
4 Justin Levitt, The Truth About Voter Fraud, Brennan Center for Justice, 2007
* From Demos.org "Voter Identification Talking Points and Fact Sheet January 5, 2010
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