State Senator Orie Wants Additional Voting Restrictions

State Senator Jane Orie, R-McCandless

The law already requires voters to show a valid photo ID whenever voting for the first time in a new district. This means if it is your first time to vote ever, or if you have moved to a new district since casting your last ballot, you must have photo ID to show at your new voting house.

State Senator Jane Orie, R-McCandless, doesn’t feel that’s good enough and has introduced Senate Bill 514 to committee, which would require all voters in Pennsylvania to have to produce a valid photo ID every time they appear to participate in elections.

Is this an unfair obstruction that may lead to more disenfranchised voters among our elderly and poor who are the least likely to have a driver’s license or passport? Or, is it a necessary measure to eliminate wide-spread voter fraud in Pennsylvania?

I’m aware of some sporadic accusations after recent elections where unqualified individuals supposedly cast ballots. To date I’m unaware of any of these accusations being proved.

Given that, it seems reasonable to assume the voting process in our state is fair and safe. Certainly more so than in some other states where vote and voter fraud has been proved following elections.

On the other hand, I think of my own Grandfather who became unsafe behind the wheel of a car as age overtook his body, so he gave up his driver’s license for the last 15 years of his life as a result.

He wasn’t a traveler in retirement, he never left his neighborhood, so he had no passport. He was a wounded WWII veteran, and retired from a long post-military career with the P&LE railroad where he spent years transporting the materials that were used to build our region’s modern buildings and infrastructure.

Legislation like this would be an obstacle to block a man like that from participating in the Democratic process he served to protect, despite the Senator’s web site stating that “This [Bill] would not pose a major inconvenience to voters”.

Does that seem like a fair trade for safeguarding against limited and mostly unproved allegations of voting and voter fraud?

This would affect you, your friends, neighbors and family members, so what do you think about it?