Tartaglione: Voter ID a “Costly Mistake”
HARRISBURG, Oct. 2, 2012 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today said a Commonwealth Court decision restores voting rights for thousands of Pennsylvanians, but can’t entirely fix a “costly mistake.”
“I’ve been confident all along that the courts would see the serious flaws and dubious reasoning behind voter ID,” Tartaglione said. Unfortunately, the ruling comes after the millions of dollars were wasted trying to get this done in time to affect the presidential election. The effort was a costly mistake and it comes at a time when we’re cutting back on help for families with disabled children and other important social services.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson ordered state election officials to continue the “soft roll-out” of voter ID, similar to what took place in the spring primary. Voters will be asked for ID, but will not be required to present it to vote.
Tartaglione said a great deal of damage has already been done by the push to convince voters they need a certain type of photo ID to vote and efforts in the next few weeks should focus on clarifying the situation for voters.
“I hope the administration has a plan for trying to set the record straight for thousands of voters that were misinformed over the past few months,” she said. “It’s a mess that has to be cleaned up.”
Tartaglione said the issue has been a chief source of anxiety in her district which has a disproportionate number of affected voters.
“For months I’ve been hearing from frustrated seniors, students and others who didn’t know what the requirements were and the requirements kept changing,” she said.