The ACLU of Pennsylvania has a long history of opposing strict, burdensome voter identification laws that disenfranchise voters. A voter ID law is a solution in search of a problem. In-person voter impersonation is almost unheard of; only three people have been convicted of this crime nationwide in 42 years.
ACLU-PA has the track record to prove that we vigorously oppose voter ID laws that disenfranchise voters. We advocated against bills to increase voter ID requirements in 2006, 2012, and 2021.
Two of those bills met their demise through gubernatorial vetoes, by Ed Rendell in 2006 and Tom Wolf in 2021. In 2012, we and our allies had to work a bit harder. When then-Governor Tom Corbett signed a restrictive voter ID law, we took the commonwealth to court. We proved that hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians would be disenfranchised by that law, while the commonwealth had to sign an affidavit acknowledging that they had no evidence of in-person voter impersonation. Ultimately, the Commonwealth Court found that that law was unconstitutional. Voters won.
That brief backstory brings us to 2025, where the ACLU of Pennsylvania does not oppose the latest iteration of voter ID to be introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. You may have just heard a needle scratch in your head and a voice saying, “You may be wondering how I got here.”
It’s true. ACLU-PA is neutral (neither supportive nor opposed) to House Bill 771, as it’s been introduced. And the reason is clear cut: the current language of the bill implements an increased voter ID requirement without disenfranchising voters, by providing fail-safes for voters who don’t have any version of the acceptable ID.
Typically, the problem with voter ID bills and laws, both in Pennsylvania and around the country, has been that they define what is acceptable ID too narrowly. Take the law we beat in 2012. That law required voters to show an unexpired government-issued photo ID. There was a slew of IDs that couldn’t be used to vote if the law had ever been implemented. Bank statement, utility bill, VA card, gun permit, Social Security card, university ID. All were unacceptable under the law. Heck, even the voter registration card that is issued by your county after it verifies that you’re eligible to vote couldn’t be used as an acceptable ID under that law.
Besides showing that hundreds of thousands of eligible voters didn’t have an ID that was permitted under that law, a handful of Pennsylvania voters told their stories to the court of how they’ve tried to get government-issued photo identification but hit hurdle after hurdle. Some had spent years trying to get an ID that would have been acceptable under the 2012 law but failed. They were voters who were eligible, had been voting for years and even decades without a problem, but faced losing their freedom to vote under that law.
House Bill 771 anticipates those problems. First, the list of acceptable ID is expansive; it mirrors what is currently allowed for first-time voters, who have to show ID under current law. And it codifies the longstanding practice by the counties of accepting the voter registration card that the county bureau of elections issues to a newly registered voter.
HB 771 then goes a step further. If a voter does not have any form of ID on that list, they can still vote in one of two ways. Another person from the election district can vouch for the person, saying that they are who they say they are, and both the voter and their friend sign an affidavit attesting to that fact.
If the voter doesn’t have a third party who can vouch for them, they can sign an affidavit themselves stating that they are who they say they are. That’s effectively what voters do now when they sign the poll book.
Signing that affidavit comes with the teeth of enforcement. If a person lies when they sign one of these affidavits, they would face significant criminal penalties, including a possible prison sentence and the loss of their right to vote.
I’ve been around the state legislature long enough to know that a bill has to follow a long and sometimes tortuous path to the governor’s desk. And this bill could be altered along the way. ACLU-PA has staked its position of neutrality on three key points—the expansive list of acceptable IDs, the affidavit option for people without ID, and no additional ID requirements for people who vote by mail or absentee. If any one of those provisions is changed in the amendment process, we will move from neutral to opposed.
Passing a bill is hard. And getting things done in Pennsylvania’s split government, where the Democrats control the governor’s office and the state House and the Republicans control the Senate, is really, really hard. Rep. Mehaffie, a Republican from Dauphin County, and Rep. Burns, a Democrat from Cambria County, have done their due diligence to craft a bill that answers the concerns of some about requiring ID to vote without disenfranchising voters. ACLU-PA applauds them for getting there.
But our loyalty is to the voters, not to politicians. We can be neutral as long as voters don’t lose the freedom to vote. As it’s now written, this bill recognizes that principle.
